Preistess of the Guado
by Sephira Netzach
Summary: CompleteRR: An AU fic centering around the possibility of Yuna bearing Seymour's child. At the end of the fic, I'll upload something explaining myself...Seymour's daughter, Ailani, and her struggles. SeymourYuna, rated for mild sexuality.
1. Beginnings

Author's note: I'm gonna put this once for the first few chapters. No character, except Calix and Ailani, belong to me..I think that's all.I'll add more in as I go, though. Also, Spira and all that FFX stuff belongs to Square..blah blah blah.you get the picture. Read on, my pretties!  
  
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Alone.  
  
Always alone, wandering the forests of a continent so vast that no one had yet circumnavigated it. Never mind the fact that most of it was mountainous, covered in deep forest.  
  
This is the last place I thought I'd be.  
  
Priestess. The crescent moon was fading on her forehead, the normal mark of a priestess of Avalon. Priestess she was no longer, but Mage. Traveling the world with a horse as her only living companion, and the sword of her mother's lover, 23-year-old Ailani Guado was a far cry from home. Back home, in the village - no, city it was, now - of Besaid, she would have been working at some feminine art, embroidery or lute. But dissidence was a mighty wedge in any family, and it was not an exception in her family. Her broken family, with her spastic, ultra-feminine mother. Ailani hated her father, detested her mother, and when the old priestess had come to Besaid and scouted her for Avalon, she didn't refuse the summons. Anything to leave the hell she'd been brought into by blood. Guado-Al Bhed-Human. Her hair color - a silvery blue - and the varicose veins on her forehead told of her Guado third, while the slight trailing edge to her pupils heralded her Al Bhed ancestors. Her mother had been part Al Bhed, and her father and mother had been part human. But it was her father who had viciously raped her mother, and nine months later, was not alive to see his daughter.  
  
Yes, Ailani thought, alone was a word she understood. Having been raised through her primary years with her godparents, Ailani had had no shortage of children her age to play with, but often it was a question of whether or not the children wanted to play with her. Most of the time she'd spent training with the local Weaponsmaster, out of boredom, and discovered her true fighting style lay with the sword. Upon hearing this, on her sixteenth birthday when her mother requested her home from Avalon and she had been presented with the sword of her mother's lover, Tidus. Caladbolg was a beautiful sword, blue gradually shading into green, silver edges and gold inlay. After she and her mother had fought for the millionth time, it seemed, she had stormed off to her room, gathered up her sword and cloak and priestess' robe, and began her trek out of the city, boarding the first boat off Besaid.  
  
Which had taken her to the continent of Anash, far to the west of Spira. Here she had gotten her horse, a silver-steel gray stallion she had named Nenya. And now she was heading towards the Serra Mountains, tall peaks cloaked in fog. Her attire had changed; the thin robe of Avalon was unsuitable here, where most of the time it was overcast and everything had a damp feel to it. She had obtained warm riding pants and a tunic of green fabric, and the black cloak she wore to keep out the chill fastened with a clasp in the shape of a dolphin. Caladbolg was firm in the sheath that she kept it in when she was riding; normally it was slung sheathless at her hip. Ailani was presently headed towards a good-sized tavern/inn, to warm up and perhaps stay a night or two and rest.  
  
Handing Nenya's reins over to the stablehand that appeared to assist her, she slipped Caladbolg out of its sheath and held it to the clamp at her hip, shook it briefly to see if it would hold, then pushed open the door with one gloved hand and entered the tavern.  
  
It was packed, as she'd expected; this was a particularly penetrating fog, and many people were inside. Seeking a room where the constant noise wouldn't bombard her ears, Ailani ducked into and out of rooms until she found one that was almost empty. Moving through the chairs, she took one near the fire and pulled the cowl of her hood down, leaning forward to absorb more warmth into her body. Goddess, but it was cold out there! Leaning back, she let the heat soak into her body, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.  
  
It wasn't until the man sat down and shifted the cushions that Ailani looked at anyone else in the room. Eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance, she met the young elf's forest-green eyes and said, "I don't believe I invited you to sit with me."  
  
The elf smiled a little; his eyes were sad, she noticed, and the smile he gave was only halfhearted. But what did she care? "I only wanted to see who the cloaked woman was, and to warm myself at the fire," he replied.  
  
Ailani, noting his overeager approach, turned back to the flames and said, "You should know that I find male rebound behavior rather embarrassing, and not flattering at all."  
  
The elf sighed. "I knew that," he said forlornly. "I've spent the last weeks running from a place called Icewind Dale, and from an old love of mine." Curious, Ailani did not feel any hesitation in asking further. "Why?" The elf stared into the flames. "I met her a long while ago.she was so sad, so timid, so tiny.I fell in love with her immediately. She was a beautiful young thing."  
  
Ailani, tired of this, waved her hand at him and leaned back towards the fire. "I don't need to hear of your old romance. Leave me alone."  
  
Apparently, this only made the elf more interested. Ailani's temper steadily rose as he continued to try to win her over; finally, at the end of her patience, she stood, whipped out Caladbolg, and said loudly enough for the whole establishment to hear, "Don't you bother me again, damnit!" and left the tavern, tearing through the stables and picking up Nenya, and galloped out of the area in a blaze of anger. 


	2. An Unexpected Announcement

Author's note: Sorry about the wait, guys. School and things have been getting in my way, as well as writer's block and a particularly nasty battle with the flu.don't worry, as long as I have fingers and a functional brain I'm going to write, just for you special people who read it. Danke! ^. ^ You guys are the best!  
  
To Kat - forgive me, genetics isn't my strong point. I think I must have missed that class in science.. thanks for the correction though!  
  
A month after the incident at the Tavern, the elf, whose name was Calix Gwydion, came to the not-so-small city of Besaid, after traveling across the ocean to the continent of Spira. People from all corners of the world came here - it was bigger even than Malik, the capitol city of Anash. Malik held over fifty thousand souls; Besaid of this time was easily twice that. But it was nice in the respect that the houses and businesses were not tall, but simply stretched into the hills behind the town for a distance. Thus, one could see the sky and feel the fresh ocean wind on their face. A pleasantry, compared to some cities he had been in, where the sky and earth had been blocked out by smoke and stone, the fresh air by the rank smell of refuse.  
  
All of Anash could take Spira and rattle it, though, Calix thought shrewdly to himself. It was true that Anash was a huge continent, the gargantuan Denali Mountains separating East from West. Few trails ran thought that wilderness.  
  
Bringing himself sharply back to the present, Calix noted that a procession of some kind was taking place near an ornate, gleaming building. Almost half the city seemed to be assembled, but with elves so rarely seen in these parts, most parted for him to have a spot near the front. Pardoning the stepped toes and hit shoulders, Calix twisted his head around to see what was going on.  
  
Two standard bearers came first - the blazon on their flags a long, wavy, blue-green sword and a staff crossed. Then came a stately woman, in her late twenties or early thirties, wearing a blue skirt and white overtunic, a wide belt around her waist. Emotional pain was in her eyes and features, in the sag of her shoulders and the absence of spring in her step. This was all in sharp comparison to the young woman behind her, who - Calix drew a sharp breath. It was her.  
  
Ailani Guado, the varicose veins that marked her Guado ancestry tracing a pattern on her forehead and the sun reflecting off her blue-silver hair that was loose and tumbled unchecked to her hips. Even though she was almost fifteen meters away from him, he could see the half-fiery, half- arrogant flash in her bluey green eyes. She was wearing an outfit much like her mother's only the overtunic was of a deep gray, and her sword rested in its sling at her hip. Calix noted that her sword was the same as the sword on the standard. Seeing his stare, an older man standing next to him said, "That is Ailani de Braska Guado, daughter to Yuna de Braska and Seymour Guado. High Summoner Yuna has been searching for her for many years - and, it is said, for a man who can break her insolent nature. They say, elf, that the spirit of that female would be impossible for a man to break."  
  
Calix nodded dumbly, watching with wide green eyes as the little procession passed, only half-listening as the man continued on - "It is being rumored that High Summoner Yuna has offered as a reward the Sword of Sir Auron."  
  
"As a reward for what?"  
  
"For bringing that daughter of hers under control," a woman on his other side chimed in. "'Tis not the High Summoner's fault that her daughter was taken to that island of Witches. Avalon is an evil place, against the New Order of Yevon, and against our way of life."  
  
"No one can think to break that girl," Calix said a little too angrily, and the man and woman blinked. "She's a wild horse - they must be tamed with gentle hands, not beaten into submission."  
  
The woman recovered first. "Well, the High Summoner has had a suitor for her, in Bevelle - that is where they are going now."  
  
Calix spun on his heel and paced ahead of the procession, making his way to where their transportation waited. The guards rode on large bird-like things, and one stood unattended while its rider was checking the wagon Ailani and High Summoner Yuna were to ride in. Calix went over and said briskly, "The Captain has ordered you relieved. You are not fit for duty; go back to your cot and rest. I will take over." The guard stared at him oddly a moment, then, without protest, walked off. Calix shook his head.  
  
"Shoddy guards," he muttered, and walked slowly up to the bird-creature. "I won't hurt you," he said softly, holding out his hand to the animal. The bird-creature cooed, and rubbed its beak against Calix's tunic. Securing his things behind the saddle, Calix mounted the bird and stood ready. Soon the procession wound into the area where the wagon was, and High Summoner Yuna quickly got into the cart. Ailani looked around her, ever the forest warrior, and was about to get in as well before her shoulders twitched, and she turned around to look at him out of the corner of her eye. Then she shook herself and climbed in beside her mother, and the wagon moved off. Calix carefully kept his face calm.  
  
The trip to Bevelle was long and dusty, and Calix was almost glad to see the towering spires of the Palace of St. Bevelle, but of course he didn't know it was the Palace. All he knew was that it was a place free of dust and cold nights. Inside the city walls, Calix twisted his head around on his neck, almost forgetting to keep the hood of his cloak up to keep the people from seeing his elfin ears, looking at everything he could. Bevelle's buildings were, in stark contrast to Besaid's, high, and blocked out the light of the sun so that it seemed they were walking in perpetual twilight.  
  
The cavalcade stopped outside a rich-looking mansion, behind ivy-covered stone walls and an wrought-iron gate. Calix, watching as a sulky Ailani and a still-passive Yuna left the wagon and headed up to the gate, which swung open as if by magic.  
  
"You there!"  
  
Calix turned to look at the burly commander who was frowning at him and pointing, and feared he'd been found out. "Y-yes, sir?"  
  
"You are their guard! Go on, get!"  
  
Calix almost collapsed with relief, but collected himself and ran after the two women. Yuna glanced back at him, and continued walking. Ailani did not look back. Calix followed them up the walkway and to the ornate wood door. The women stepped aside, and acting on a hunch, Calix stepped forward and knocked on the door.  
  
A manservant opened it after a brief pause. Calix said, "The Ladies Yuna de Braska and Ailani de Braska Guado," and bowed. The two women stepped forward, the blue velvet of Ailani's skirt swishing out in front of her cloak. Both performed a curious bow, which consisted of holding the arms out straight from the body and then bringing them in front, forming a circle with the hands and bowing over it. At a glance from the manservant, Calix awkwardly did the same, then was taken into the mansion itself.  
  
The interior was lavish, everything rich and of the most expensive material. Brass gleamed, wood gleamed, and everything gleamed and sparkled and shone in an attractive way. To Calix, it was entirely too glamorous for his elfin tastes, used to nature themes and graceful carvings. The entire house seemed to say, Here is my wealth, be jealous.  
  
Another carved door blocked their progress. Again Calix knocked on it, and again a manservant, wearing the same uniform as the first - gray robes with a strange symbol on the front - opened it. "The ladies Yuna de Braska and Ailani de Braska Guado, I presume?" Calix nodded, and the manservant bowed them in to a room even more ornate than the others they had passed through.  
  
It was not cold, so a fire did not burn in the huge marble fireplace that could have fit several well-fed dwarves. The floor was of an unusual opalline hue, more white, but with pale reds and greens and blues in it. Over that, a rich rug with the same symbol on it as was on the servants' robes, and on top of the rug were thickly padded chairs and couches. On one of the chairs, a man lounged.  
  
Now, this was no ordinary man. His stature was one of power, evidenced in his broad shoulders and muscled arms that showed even through the rich clothing he had on. Pale blond hair, almost white, flowed to his shoulders and intensely blue eyes settled briefly on Calix, then turned to Ailani. The man smiled, showing two rows of perfect white teeth, and performed the curious bow to Yuna. "Welcome, High Summoner Yuna de Braska." "Greetings, Lord Aubrey Braeden," Yuna said formally and without a trace of feeling. "This is my daughter - "  
  
"The Lady Ailani de Braska Guado," Lord Aubrey said, taking Ailani's delicate-fingered hand and kissing it. "The intended." Ailani's look upon him was one of the utmost disgust, and she yanked her hand back.  
  
"Keep your hands off my, Lord Aubrey, before I take them off for you."  
  
Aubrey laughed. "Such fire in My Lady!" he said, his tone airy and his eyes dancing. Quickly, though, he sobered. "But such you are."  
  
Ailani looked unhappily between them, more anger in her lovely features than despair. "What are you both scheming that you didn't see fit to tell me of?"  
  
Lord Aubrey laughed. "Why, my dear Lady Ailani," he said. "You are getting married."  
  
All right, all right. Forgive the weak ending, I'm fighting the flu and writer's block. And this chapter isn't so long.Ai..blah. Well, anyway, there's significance in the names of the people - other than Yuna. Brownie points and a preview of one of the next chapter to the person who gets it in to me! My e-mail is LaMiDieter@aol.com.  
  
On the 'de Braska' thing.I saw this once in a fanfic I can't remember the name of, but I thank the author of it a million times over. 'de Braska' is giving the lineage (I think) of the person. So "Yuna de Braska" is "Yuna of Braska" giving the name of Yuna's father. I think. If anyone can clarify that for me, please do so! ^.^ 


	3. Unwanted Contact

Author's note: Sorry for the slip on the first chapter.in the disclaimer I hinted that Calix's name would be Kaiel, when Kaiel is the character in one of my other stories that I'm working on currently. So forgive me my little sins, please.? In any case, my flu's going away finally .I felt so bad about the wait for the second chapter that I've started writing drafts of the chapters at school. Anyway, the name contest is still up, and the preview will be the chapter after the winning e-mail is sent in - or it will be a preview of the next fanfic I'm going to publish, "My Blue Heaven." I won't bore you any further - here's chapter three!  
  
Ailani's expression went from darkened with anger to pale. "W-what?"  
  
Aubrey smiled again, the smile charming but nonetheless holding something that utterly repulsed Ailani and made Calix want to get out his twin scimitars and take off the young Lord's head. Yuna, however, smiled in return. To Calix's horror, there was a measure of pride in her smile - was she proud of this incubus of a man that had singled her daughter out for his own? If only he had come with an entourage befitting the Prince of a High Elf community.then things would have been different. In any case, if the High Summoner took pride in this match, then it was really only a last desperate stab to save her daughter's honor and her own.  
  
Ailani looked between them. "You're both mad," she said softly, her eyes holding a last spark of hope amidst the anger and betrayal and hurt. "Tell me I'm not really to marry Lord Aubrey. Mother!"  
  
Yuna's smile did not waver in the least as she looked at her very unhappy daughter and said, "Of course we're not mad, Ailani. You are older than I was when I married your father."  
  
Ailani got up and overbalanced in her haste and rage, and Calix was swift to push her back up. "You cannot talk about my father!" Ailani screamed in a rage. "He was an outcast, as I am! A bastard child by a bastard father! Unworthy!"  
  
Yuna's smile had faded, and she resignedly began to reason with her hysterical daughter. But Aubrey was there first, and performed the one task that would quiet the unhappiest of women.  
  
He kissed her.  
  
Yuna simply froze, and Calix turned away. Aubrey's hands came up to grasp Ailani's shoulders; the young priestess still too much in shock to react. After a few lifetimes, Aubrey lifted his head and smiled cordially at them both. "I trust arrangements will have already been made for the wedding prior to your arrival here, Lady Yuna?"  
  
"Yes, Lord Aubrey. You could wed her tomorrow if you wished."  
  
"I do so wish. Tomorrow, when the sun hits the tallest spire of the Palace of St. Bevelle, we will be Lord and Lady." He turned his attention to a now-squirming Ailani, who was glaring murderously at him.  
  
"If you expect me to be anything beyond civil to this.male you have chosen for me, mother," Ailani shot icily, "You are underestimating a Priestess of Avalon." And she flew out of the room, the black demon of her rage following her. Yuna bowed to Lord Aubrey, then left. Calix was at her heels.  
  
Ailani was outside when he reached the front gate, leaning against the side of the wagon and toying with the hilt of her sword. Yuna was ordering people to go and make ready the temple, completely ignoring the tangible aura rapidly growing around her daughter. As Calix, unsure of what to do, wandered past Ailani, she reached out and grabbed him. "You are the elf from the tavern."  
  
"Yes, My Lady."  
  
Ailani's smiled widened. "Will you do me a favor, Lord Elf?"  
  
"Anything, My Lady."  
  
"Bring me my horse - make sure it is safe in the stables here."  
  
"Yes, Lady Ailani."  
  
Ailani nodded, her eyes half-hidden behind eyelashes as black as he was sure Aubrey's heart was. "Thank you."  
  
The next morning, very early, Yuna stood beside her daughter as the time for the beginning of The Ceremony drew near. Ailani's gown had been her own; the white winged one she had worn on the ill-fated day when her own heart had been rent in two. The day when she had had to choose - quite wrongly, she admitted, in retrospect - between the new, handsome, strong blitzer, and the father of the child she knew she was carrying even a month after the deed had been done between her and Seymour. Unfortunately, she in her naïve teen years had gone with Tidus and not Seymour, as it should have been. When Tidus had faded to a mere dream, twenty-three years ago, and when Yuna's belly had grown round with the impudent warrior-woman she saw before her now, Yuna had seen the error of her ways. And it had broken her.  
  
Lord Seymour, my love, you should have been alive to see your own daughter grow.  
  
Yuna sighed. Sometimes she thought it was the years with Wakka and Lulu that had toughened her daughter. That couple had been the one who allowed her to go to the Isle of Witches for training. And indeed, when Yuna had summoned Ailani home and she had returned she had been trained well. Ailani was skilled in black magics, white magics - she had the Sight of the Old Ones, and always that strange, strange symbol on her forehead, the blue crescent of Avalon. Ailani, her daughter, her beautiful, headstrong, arrogant, magical daughter.  
  
Aubrey hadn't minded, when Yuna had gone to tell him of the desire she had to arrange a marriage between Ailani and he. Aubrey was a good match - strong, a little ruthless, a little overbearing, but most importantly, he had managed to calm her normally unreasonable daughter. Anyone who managed that was worthy of high honor.  
  
Ailani twisted to look back at her mother, fear and hatred dancing a dangerous waltz in her blue-green eyes. "How could you do this to me?" She demanded. Yuna sighed again.  
  
"Ailani, love, one day you'll understand. I'm doing this to protect you."  
  
Ailani turned back to the mirror. "I don't feel protected around Lord Aubrey."  
  
The Palace bells rang. 


	4. Ceremonies and Icy Fire

Author's notes: The usual. Names contest still open - a hint, you could go to one site and get it over with in about half an hour if you have all the names. That said, on with it!  
  
Calix, still a few miles outside Bevelle with Ailani's tireless stallion, heard the bells ringing, a sound that cut him to his heart. Slowing the almost frantic pace of the great gray steed, he watched the spires of the temple in the center of the great city of Spira.  
  
Calix had made all haste out of Bevelle the day before, not wishing to hear the talk of the wedding. Using his elfin magic on the bird-creature (Known as a chocobo to the Spirans) he had flown along the land, reaching Besaid by moonrise. The stallion had been prancing outside his stall, fully tacked and ready to go. Settling the bird and mounting the horse, Calix had ridden through the night, the stallion even faster than the magically enhanced chocobo had been, not even breaking a sweat as they reached the large, glowing river known as the Moonflow. Much to Calix's astonishment, the stallion had galloped across the water as if it were solid land. Calix had seen many special animals, many more special horses, but Nenya was certainly something different. Wizard-bred, maybe, or bred by the Sky Elves in their great cities in the clouds. Certainly it fit; Nenya, in the High Elves' theology, was the Guardian of Air, ridden by the Queen of Water and Air, Kaloni.  
  
The name for a priestess, in the parlance of the humans on the continent Anash, was Morgan. Woman from the sea, it meant - Ailani was a priestess, a morgan, and she rode the Steed of the Sky, Nenya. Air and water. The names fit.  
  
Urging Nenya on again, he and the horse were but a blur when they streaked under the gates of Bevelle. Slowing only barely for the city, Calix finally stopped the only lightly sweating stallion and dismounted, made sure he was in good hands with the stable boys, then left, more than a little heartsick, for home.  
  
On the temple above, out on the walks connecting the high spires of the Palace of St. Bevelle, Yuna shivered in memory. She was on the highest alcove-balcony on the highest spire, next to the priest of the New Order of Yevon. Having been a Yevonite all her life, Yuna found the precepts hard to release, even after the deception of the original Yevon leaders. Spira had been rebuilt on the back of the New Order, and Yuna intended to make sure that her line continued in the faith.  
  
Aubrey, in splendid gray robes covered with intricate embroidery, emerged from the tower room where he had made his preparations. His platinum- blonde hair flashed in the sunlight, and he smiled assuredly.  
  
Ailani emerged from the opposing tower, surrounded by six women in cream- colored dresses that served to accent the pure white of Ailani's gown. Her expression, if one could call it that, was of stoicism; but the women around her could see the carefully veiled rage.  
  
The two parties met at the junction onto the main walkway; suspended hundreds of feet above the city, some of those in attendance looked more than a little queasy. Three groomsmen and three bridesmaids peeled off to stand at the bottom of the flight of steps that was the final march to the altar. Ailani glared up at her mother, standing up there with them, and beside her Aubrey couldn't help but look at her, though he had done nothing else after she had been sent back inside while Lady Yuna made the necessary preparations. Today, her hair flowed free again, appearing longer than ever. Little tightly twisted bits kept it free of her face, and at the crown of her head the twists were tied off, the extra hair bone-straight and glinting silver-blue in the midsummer sunlight. Her Guado heritage displayed in the varicose veins tracing lines down to her cheeks, she was every humanoid race on Spira in one.  
  
Reaching the top balcony, the attendants again filed off to the sides, and in front of the priest, Aubrey and Ailani faced each other. Hypnotic blue met cold, calculating blue-green, and then both looked at the priest, who began the liturgy.  
  
The sun's edge was barely a hair's breadth from the tip of the spire, shining down on the wedding party. Ailani's eyes watched in growing dread as the sun's golden edge touched the tip. At that moment, the priest finished the homily on the sanctity of marriage under Yevon, and once again Aubrey's lips fastened on hers. Ailani shuddered and clenched her fists, forcing her mental shields up to stem the rush of lust that her empathic mind picked up from Aubrey.  
  
The young Lord pressed Ailani's lithe body against him, as much needing the feel of this insolent beauty as that he needed to exert the control that Yuna had asked him to have over Ailani. Aubrey remembered that meeting well.  
  
*Two months ago.*  
  
Lord Aubrey turned, surprised to see High Summoner Yuna in his parlor. "Yes, High Summoner Yuna?"  
  
The woman who had once been a hero of a continent was now stooped not with age, but with despair. Emotional wounds had brought the once-vibrant girl to early seniority, and she did not often travel far from Besaid, where she spent the days of her pious life in study.  
  
Yuna came alongside him. "Lord Aubrey Braedon. I hope you are well?"  
  
"I am, Lady Yuna. Though I hardly think you came all the way to Bevelle from Besaid to simply ask my well-being."  
  
She chuckled. "You are perceptive. I do wish something more.you know of my daughter, Ailani de Braska Guado, do you not?"  
  
"Yes. I was told she left Besaid after being taken from the Isle of Witches." "She did. I have asked her return, and she has replied that she will."  
  
Aubrey paused. "Lady Yuna, forgive my rudeness, but please get to the point."  
  
Yuna smiled. "You know of my daughter's.personality?"  
  
"Yes." Indeed, Ailani's insolent nature was known throughout Spira. No one knew where the child had gotten it, her parents being who they were.  
  
"Then you will not have any problem marrying her?"  
  
"Excuse.me?"  
  
"Yes." Yuna's face turned bleak. "She is nearing her twenty-fourth year now. Older by at least six years than many young women who are married and have children. I need someone to bring her under control, Lord Aubrey. I think that you are the one to do that."  
  
Now Aubrey intended to exert this power and put Ailani in a better frame of mind. After all, her history being what it was, surely it was simply some quirk of nature that could quickly be undone. And then Ailani would be a polite, virtuous, obedient wife.  
  
Again, after what seemed eons to him, Aubrey released her lips and smiled down at her. Her eyes were still icy, but now below the ice the first sparks of black hatred had been lit.  
  
All who saw Ailani's eyes afterwards went to their homes that night and prayed to whatever deity they believed in, that as long as Aubrey drew breath those sparks would not melt a hole in the ice. 


	5. Flight to the Woods

Author's Notes: What more can I say? Disclaimers, as usual, and most of the lot of the characters, places, theologies, etc., belong to Square and not me. And a word to all you impatient for some S&Y action - good things come to those who wait is my philosophy. Do I hate you? No. But sometimes, you hafta have a little patience. ^.^ That said..chapter 5!  
  
Life went on, in Spira. After the last of the parties in celebration of the joining of two major families in the land, things quieted down for a while. Then the rumors began trickling out. Whispered in every marketplace and on every street corner, they spread like wildfire through the ears of the worst gossips in Bevelle.  
  
Lord Aubrey and Lady Ailani were both harlots.  
  
Lady Ailani kept her bed with an Al Bhed heathen, and Lord Aubrey was left alone.  
  
Lady Ailani was a witch, and was pregnant with the bastard child of one of the other continent's strange races.  
  
Lord Aubrey beat Lady Ailani because she was an insolent minx.  
  
Only two of the rumors had any sort of truth in them; Lady Ailani was a witch, bearing the blue crescent of the Isle of Avalon. She had been trained there since she was a young child; she had not the ability to see through the mists of time, but she could summon it with herbs; skilled was she in Druid-craft and Mage-craft. Herb lore was also known to her; when one of her neighbors became ill, Ailani had brought the elderly woman a mix of herbs that grew in her garden, and the woman had been well in a day. Sorcery, the old aunties said, and heathendom. But most thought Lady Ailani was simply well-versed in doctoring.  
  
The other truth was that Aubrey beat her.  
  
Unfortunate was it that he did; he had not had the time to know that if Ailani was pushed beyond her limit, her first instinct was to push back. And she did; but in a different way than expected. She grew more passive- aggressive, not directly harming her husband but deliberately making events happen. People thought it strange, too, that she was not yet with child; other women who married around that time, near to a year ago, already had children. Ailani had no children and did not even have a sign of being pregnant. Her courses came regularly; and so did the beatings.  
  
Which was what Aubrey was brooding about that night as he sat before the fire in the parlor. Ailani had already taken herself off to bed; Aubrey had gone up to make sure she was asleep. The blue-black of the bruises stood out starkly against her pale skin, and Aubrey had, very lightly, run his fingertips along one. What have I become? He wondered. There had been a time when he would not have dreamed of hurting anyone, no matter what they did. Now it seemed he could not control himself; whenever he heard an insult, pretended or real, in Ailani's clipped words to him, he simply went mad. Worse yet were the glares she gave him while his fists pummeled her and as she tried to fight him. They were like twin beams of ice, concealing a fire that he had seen at their marriage.  
  
The ice had worn thin.  
  
~*~  
  
Calix drew his cloak tight about him, even though he was followed by two of his most trusted friends: one, an elf named Alastair Celes, and his panther friend Cloudchaser. Between the three - for Calix and Alastair were mounted on very fine horses of elfin breeding - they cut a path right up to the gate of the great mansion. Calix's horse pushed open the gate with his nose, and the trio walked into the courtyard. As he dismounted, the elf-prince noted that a small garden had been planted on the grounds, near the formal gardens. To Calix's delight, it grew herbs that were common things in medicines - and in dweomers and certain Black arts. That thought sobered him, but what really brought him to reality was the sight of a dark shadow on Ailani's cheek when she opened the door.  
  
Ailani looked tired, but she still carried herself with an aura of indifference and arrogance. She blinked at him (Does she not remember me? Calix wondered) and said, in a short voice, "Who, might I ask, are you?"  
  
Calix and Alastair bowed, and Cloudchaser sunk into a feline version of a bow. "I am Calix Gwydion, my lady Ailani, and this is Alastair Baruch and Cloudchaser. Both are friends of mine, and Alastair is attendant to the High Court of Caleb Gwydion, my father, High King of the Elves."  
  
Ailani curtsied in a very stiff way, and said, "My Lord Aubrey is - "  
  
Calix cut her off. "I wish not to see Lord Aubrey. It is you I have concern for; tell me, Lady Ailani, did you not once wander the forests of Anash?"  
  
Aliani caught her breath. "You are that elf I met?"  
  
"I am, Lady Ailani. Might we be allowed in and not be made to stand out in the elements like common servants?"  
  
Ailani blinked, and for a fleeting moment something other than hatred and thinly veiled rage showed in her tropical eyes; then the iciness was back, and she bowed her head. "You may. Corina -" she called out to one of the maids, "Please bring some warm tea to the parlor, please."  
  
The maid Corina took their cloaks and patted Cloudchaser on the head affectionately before taking herself off to the kitchens. Ailani led them to the parlor room, and they sat; Cloudchaser curled up at Calix's feet, purring contentedly. The panther did not like the heat, as its coat was a shiny blue-black; here, in the cool of the house, was much more comfortable. Corina brought the tea, and Ailani sipped it before speaking.  
  
"Why have you come here?"  
  
"Because, My Lady - news travels fast, especially scandal. It has been said, Lady Ailani, that you are not being treated as befits a woman of your station and birth."  
  
Ailani straightened. "I am being treated very well, here, Prince Calix, and - "  
  
Calix reached out and touched one of the bruises on Ailani's face, healing it with a spell unknown to the priestess, then touched the fading crescent on her brow. "You are not."  
  
The woman looked down, then back up again. "What do you care?"  
  
"Is it not customary for a priestess vowed to the Goddess to keep the crescent on her brow fresh?"  
  
"My Lord Aubrey would not have such symbols displayed in this Yevonite household."  
  
Calix drew back his sleeve; the serpents of Avalon twined around his wrist. "I too was trained in Avalon," he said gravely. "I know, too, that a priestess does not have to bow to anyone she does not wish to."  
  
Ailani scowled. "My Lord Aubrey would - "  
  
Alastair spoke for the first time. "Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey is not what he seems. You know this."  
  
Calix smiled. Alastair was a Mind-seer, someone who could see into the minds of others and pull out their thoughts. "Lady Ailani - "  
  
"Who are these people, Ailani?"  
  
All three turned to see Aubrey standing in the doorway of the parlor. Cloudchaser's ears flattened, and he growled low. Calix saw the deadly claws lower out of the paws, and absently patted the panther's head. Aubrey strode over to Calix, who stood.  
  
"You.who are you, that would presume to be alone in my house with my wife?"  
  
Calix looked Aubrey calmly in the eye. "I am simply holding a conversation with the Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey. And I am Calix Gwydion, son of Caleb Gwydion, High King of the Elves. This is my friend and attendant Alastair Baruch, and my dear friend and pet Cloudchaser."  
  
The panther growled again. Alastair's eyes were half-closed, and he was looking at the young Lord with a wary eye. Aliani looked between all of them and sighed in frustration. "Lord Aubrey, these elves meant nothing more than to talk - "  
  
"Ailani, do no speak!"  
  
"I will if I feel like it, Lord Aubrey, and who am I to take orders from you - I, a priestess of Avalon, and you nothing more than a - a demon prince!"  
  
Aubrey slapped her, and a deathly silence fell on the room. Ailani's head was facing left over her shoulder, and even from this angle Calix could see the look of murderous rage on her fair face. "How do you dare," she said softly.  
  
Alastair slipped out; Calix knew not where he was going. Ailani turned very slowly to fully face Aubrey. "You hellspawn. I do not know why I did not kill you when I had the chance. You men are so very vulnerable after a bedding."  
  
Aubrey didn't even flush. "You are the hellspawn, witch," he said. "You have not shown hint of pregnancy since I wed you, when other wives your age have already had their first children and are carrying their second. What did you do, Lady Ailani? Put a spell on yourself as to cast any babe from you the moment it was conceived? Or did you put some curse on me?"  
  
Ailani drew herself up to her full height; she was nearly as tall as her father, a full six feet, and she too stood eye to eye with Aubrey. "Neither, my Lord."  
  
Aubrey's eyes glowed red, and the fireplace exploded into flames. It seemed he grew taller and darker, and even Ailani shrank back. "Witch! Harlot! You keep your bed with this elf when I am gone, don't you? Answer me!"  
  
Calix leapt between them, drawing his scimitars and holding one in defense across his chest, the other pointing at the demon Aubrey. "You keep away from her, demon prince, or my blade shall find its place in your heart!"  
  
Ailani, behind him, was muttering something, and Calix could only see the flurry of ice for a second before she was ducking out from behind him and sprinting down the hall. She threw open a closet and drew out her cloak and a pack, and a sword and belt. Calix ran after her, and the last thing she did before following the elf out the door was point her sword at the demon standing in the parlor and say, "You bastard, I'll see you in hell if ever you come after me!"  
  
Running out, Calix saw that Alastair held their horses. Cloudchaser was beside him, kneading her claws in the flagstones and growling. He also held Ailani's stallion, fully tacked, and as she exited the house, spitting at the door, she took two strides and vaulted effortlessly into the saddle. Her dress bunched up to her knees, but she tapped her horse's sides and he bolted from the mansion walls, his ears flat to his head. Calix took off after her, and Cloudchaser was right beside him, Alastair just behind. The four rode hard out of Bevelle, not slowing their pace until they reached a broad plain to the south of the city. Only then did Ailani slow her stallion to anything below a trot, stopping in a grove of trees. Calix's horse was nearly spent, but he gallantly trotted into the grove. Calix and Alastair dismounted and untacked their horses, which gladly got a drink from the stream running through the grove and then lay down in the patch of sunlight in the middle of the grove, closing their eyes.  
  
Ailani emerged from behind a tree, changed into the robes of a priestess of Avalon. Calix knew the reason; a priestess, traveling with an escort, would not be questioned. They would rest here this night; tomorrow, the road would be their home again. 


	6. Of mice and Mako

Author's Notes: Disclaimers for FFVII included here as well, and for The Mists of Avalon and FFX. The usual. Whee! Memorial Day weekend, three days off, meaning TWICE the chapters for ya! Other than that, nothing else except for my ignoramus of a computer to want to turn "Avalon" into "Abalone" ^.^ Heehee, silly computer.  
  
Calix's horse's hoofbeats definitely had a little bounce to them as they headed down the shady track to their home of Silverwood. Alastair breathed a prayer to the Elfin gods that they had made it across the ocean and to the great continent of Anash without harm. Ailani's horse, ever alert, pricked his ears and trotted easily, the other horses hard put to keep pace with him. Again Calix wondered where exactly Ailani had gotten such a horse, wizard-bred and magic-trained. Wizard horses sold for millions of pounds of gold on any market, and for Ailani, away from the halls of Avalon and wandering an unknown land, to have so much money was unusual.  
  
Around them, the huge trunks of the silverwood trees for which his home city was named towered. Out of the branches of one, a guard dropped, blocking their path. He bowed when he realized that it was his prince.  
  
"Prince Calix, it is good to have you home!" The guard cried in the Elfin tongue. "King Caleb was indeed worried.but have you succeeded in your plans?"  
  
Calix grasped Ailani's horse's bridle and brought it forward a step. "I give you Lady Ailani of the Holy Isle of Avalon, former wife of the demon Aubrey."  
  
The guard made the protective sign against demons. "She was wed to that demon?"  
  
Calix nodded gravely. "And she is the worse for it too.would that demons who are banished remain so!"  
  
"King Caleb will be pleased to welcome her into Silverwood, indeed," the guard said, and leapt lightly from ground to branches until he was again hidden from sight.  
  
Calix led them forward again, the track sloping downward, until finally they came to the eastern edge of the City of Silver and Light, Silverwood. Fairy-fire lit the houses and the lamps, and elves lined the streets, bowing as the little procession passed them. Ailani was looking around with an expression of awe on her face, and her horse too was bending his neck around, but with an expression that clearly said, home.  
  
They ascended a staircase that spiral up the trunk of a silverwood tree, coming to a small plateau upon which the palace was built. Calix was let through, the elves on the walls watching them and staring most curiously at Ailani; the blue crescent, freshly painted on her brow, appeared to glow in the magical light.  
  
The palace was made of silver-white stone, marble, and glowed softly. The entire palace was imbued with the magical power of generations of elf rulers, and emitted a faint hum. Their horses were led away, and Calix again led them up the steps to the throne hall of the High King of the Elves, Caleb Gwydion, his father.  
  
Entering the throne hall brought whispers and glances from the elves present in the hall at that moment. The fact that the head of the phalanx of elves, priestess, and panther was their prince generated some; the blue crescent on Ailani's forehead drew most. The three knelt before the throne, upon which was seated a great elf man, with brown hair and forest- green eyes. Ailani could tell this was Calix's father; they had the same aura, and they had the same eyes.  
  
Calix rose, and motioned for Ailani to stand also. She did, her priestess robes making her look taller than her six feet warranted. Her blue hair tumbled unchecked, and the little sickle knife of her initiation hung on one side of her waist. Caladbolg hung on the other. This sword's hilt was her handrest currently, as Calix said, "Father, I give you Lady Ailani, Priestess of the Holy Isle of Avalon, daughter of Yuna de Braska of Besaid in Spira."  
  
"I could tell she was priestess when she entered the room, Son," King Caleb answered. "The symbol on her brow says as much. Come, Lady Ailani, let me get a good look at you." Ailani walked forward a few steps, her expression nonchalant. King Caleb laughed.  
  
"Well, Son, she is as you said. It has been long since the High Court of Silverwood has been graced with a Priestess of Avalon; indeed, too long. Come, tell me - who sits as Lady of the Lake?"  
  
"Lady Cassara, Your Highness."  
  
"Lady Cassara.I remember her from the last time I was at Avalon, to see the serpents tattooed on my son's wrists - indeed, she was young then, but she had much potential. I am glad she now is Lady. But," and here he paused, looking hard at Ailani, "What of you? Why are you not now on that Holy Isle?"  
  
Calix cleared his throat. "Father, Lady Ailani is much tired from her journey. Please, we may discuss such things on the morrow, but not tonight."  
  
King Caleb nodded, all royal again. "You are right, Son. Alastair, show Lady Ailani to a room - one with a window, please. And Son - rest, also."  
  
All three bowed, and exited into the heart of the palace.  
  
~*~  
  
Aubrey looked around at the shadowed figures standing in the large room of his mansion. "You know what to do?"  
  
"Bring the priestess, kill the elf-prince," many voices hissed. Red eyes glowed from under the cowls of some cloaks, while others glowed an evil purple. One, in robes embroidered with a spider, stepped forward.  
  
"Lord Aubrey - the priestess is of Avalon. We will not be able to touch her without being burned or killed."  
  
"Then tie her, hit her unconscious, I do not care!" the demon prince screamed. "Just get her back to me!"  
  
The assembly nodded and left by various means, out into the night. Aubrey sat back, and smiled. By the end of the next year, Ailani would be back and would be carrying his child, the heir to the throne of Tartarus, and he would have all things under his control.  
  
~*~  
  
The island was barren, the raw life of the Planet sucked out of it and put to the glowing pool of green liquid that now occupied the space were a town known as Mideel had been. The pool held the substance called "Mako." Once used by a corrupt corporation to produce energy, this substance had been seen by a certain Summoner and her guardians near a mountain called Gagazet, and near to the ruins of the great metropolis, Zanarkand. Now, this pool was the only sign that anything having to do with the fayth was anything more than a statue, a hunk of lifeless rock.  
  
The Mako bubbled happily away to itself as it spewed the prone figure of the man out of the pool. Its Mother had told it that this man needed to be sent back to undo what he had done in his life, and that if he succeeded also in the task set before him, she would grant him forgiveness. Now he was on a quest to redeem himself in her eyes.  
  
The lifeless form twitched, and the man stood. Wiping the thick liquid from his oddly lavendar-blue eyes, he looked gratefully back at the pool, mouthing a thanks. Then he set about cleaning himself up, running his fingers through his shortened hair and straightening the robes that the Planet had given him. Why, except for the hair, he was himself again. And as he stared into the tidepool before him, and before the great eagle came and bore him away to the mainland, one name formed on his lips:  
  
"Yuna." 


	7. Adagio and Transfiguration

Author's Notes: Aaai, my poor muses. ::hands out espressos and pats on the head:: I'm sorry for overworking you, my dearies.  
  
Ailani woke in a bed that smelled of flowers and the woods, and was tempted to simply fall back asleep again. The covers were so soft, woven of a strange material that felt soft to her riding-roughened hands. The bed, too, held no one else in it; something else she was unaccustomed to, for Aubrey always shared her bed when she was not in her courses.  
  
Then she remembered where she was; the Elf community of Silverwood, in the house of King Caleb Gwydion. Swinging her muscled legs reluctantly over the edge of the bed, she winced as the movement pulled at muscles not yet recovered from one of Aubrey's previous beatings. On the chest at the end of her bed, her priestess' robes had been cleaned and folded neatly, and her boots placed beside the chest. And also clean undergarments, and a small pot of blue dye with a little brush in it.  
  
Ailani put on her robes and painted the crescent on her forehead. Then running a brush through her hair, she bound it behind her head and, in the peculiar floating gait of a priestess in robes, walked over to the window, placing her hands on the sill. Below, elves were out already in the streets, laughing and talking amongst themselves. The whole lent an aura of unhurried business to the young priestess.  
  
A knock on the door brought Ailani swiftly around, her hand going for where her sword would be, and closing on air. Shaking her head, Ailani steeled herself and opened the door.  
  
Calix leaned against the door frame, her sword and sword belt in one hand. "Are you hungry, Lady Ailani?" he asked, and tossed her equipment to her. Ailani caught it and buckled the sword around her waist. "Breakfast is laid out in the dining hall, My Lady."  
  
Ailani pushed past him and started down the hallway, following the scent of food in the air to a large hall that appeared to be made of intertwining branches of the great silver trees. Calix came up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and turned away, heading for the plates of strange-looking food that sat upon the table and emanated delightful aromas.  
  
Not caring about how a lady was supposed to act, Ailani took generous helpings of everything within her reach and ate ravenously. Food had been mediocre at best on her flight from Bevelle, and Aubrey had insisted she eat only small portions, "as befits a lady." Well, she was not going to starve herself to get the desired hourglass shape; she had spent enough time in Avalon to know that that fit look was to be had through assiduous exercise and proper eating.  
  
Cloudchaser curled up at her feet, purring and begging her with his eyes to give him a small piece. Ailani actually smiled (An event that did not go unnoticed by Calix, sitting across from her) and handed a small bit of meat down to the cat. She, as a general rule, did not eat meat; the Sight was hard enough to come by in her as it was. Cloudchaser happily gobbled up the slice and rubbed his head against her leg, purring.  
  
"It appears my panther friend is taken with you," Calix said softly. Ailani looked up, and again a flicker of something other than her normal hatred and rage flashed through her eyes.  
  
"I know," she replied in a much kinder voice than normal. "He is a wizard- bred cat, is he not?"  
  
Calix nodded. "Yes.bred by a wizard named Elias Feng. Cloudchaser is not a normal panther.just as Nenya is not a normal horse, is he, Priestess?"  
  
Ailani looked back down as she stroked the panther. "Nenya is also wizard- bred, that am I allowed to admit. But the wizard who bred and trained Nenya vowed me to secrecy. And you who wear the serpents know that one should swear not - "  
  
" - lest they be forever sworn." Calix finished. "Yes.I do know."  
  
~*~  
  
One of the drow came back to Aubrey the next night, saying that one of the members of the hunting party that he was a part of had found the trail - three horses and a feline, heading to Luca at high speeds. From there, the male drow said, they had gotten passage on a boat from Luca to the port of Ibetsam on the Anashian coast. Then the trail entered the Niwe Forest, and became confused with those of other animals.  
  
Aubrey smiled to himself. Niwe Forest was home of a large city of elves - notably, the home of King Caleb Gwydion, father of the cursed elf that had stolen Ailani away, and forced him to show his demon form. Ailani was not stupid; she would seek shelter in one of the safest places on any of the continents, a place safer even then the Isle of Avalon. Inwardly, he was surprised she had not made for that unholy land first. But with the drow on her tail, with their Priestesses of Lolth the Spider Queen, she would be here with him again soon.  
  
Soon.  
  
~*~  
  
The man from the Lifestream blinked as the eagle descended to a cliff outside the city of Besaid. Sliding off and sending a pulse of thanks along the ever-weakening telepathic link, he made for the city, his robes floating out behind him. Upon reaching the outskirts, he slowed and chose a course that would lead him through back doors and dark alleys; the less he was seen, the better. As he was thought dead by the masses, his sudden reappearance, with glowing gray-blue lavender eyes, would cause an upset before he could get to her.  
  
Night had fallen before he reached the house that he sought. Pushing lightly off the ground, he used a little of the remaining strength of the souped-up temporary mental prowess that the Lifestream had granted him to get here to levitate himself to the balcony where his beloved slept.  
  
With the tips of his opaline nails, he scratched lightly on his beloved's balcony door. She woke; gasped at the sight of him standing outside her door and slid it open, staring up at him with an expression that was a mix of love, lust, awe, and surprise.  
  
"S-Sey - "  
  
He laid a finger against her lips. "Shh, darling."  
  
She backed away a little, and Seymour Guado tilted his head a little. After all this time.did he still intimidate her? But then she flew into his arms, and with a few glowing tears he wrapped his arms around her. She, too, was crying; the saline drops wet the front of his robes and tattooed chest. "I.but how.you."  
  
Seymour stroked her hair. "It doesn't matter; I will explain in the morning. Now," and here he grasped her shoulders as he had done on a certain Palace walkway high above Bevelle twenty-four years ago, and looked down into her eyes. "Now, Yuna, it is late, and the morning comes on swift wings."  
  
Yuna, unwilling to leave the arms of the man she had longed for so many years, gestured under his arm to her bed. It was a large bed; big enough for two people, certainly. "Then let us rest a little."  
  
Seymour gratefully drew off his robe and slid under the soft covers next to Yuna, laying an arm over her and kissing her forehead as she drifted off to sleep. In time, he too closed his eyes, and sank into dreamscapes. 


	8. Midsummer Fires

Author's Notes: . . . for those of you who are squeamish about passions and whatnot, I suggest you look away now. Read at your own risk; Midsummer's a volatile time.but for you educated souls who have read The Mists of Avalon, you'll know what to expect. ^.^  
  
Night and day faded into one as time passed in the High Court of King Caleb. Ailani's bruises faded; but the ones on her spirit did not.  
  
Calix considered that point, perched on the branch of a silverwood tree high above the city. A light breeze stirred his inky-black hair, getting it into his green eyes, as he pondered the puzzle that was Ailani de Braska Guado. Every time he had tried to get close to her, she had (sometimes violently) pushed him away. She spent hours on one of the open promenades, practicing moves with her sword, over and over and over. Her face, during those times that she let him see her in her fluid dance with the blades, was stony. The ice on her eyes had grown back over the fires, and for the moment they lay dormant.  
  
Calix did not want to see what would happen were they ever to be stoked again.  
  
Calix sighed in frustration, and laced his fingers behind his head, staring at the night sky. Below him, the sounds of the Midsummer Festival drifted up, twining around the branches as the elves celebrated the coming of summer, of long days and cooling dips in the streams that ran through Silverwood. Somewhere below him, Ailani walked the streets, welcomed in her garb of the priestesses of Avalon. Calix supposed he should go down and make himself present at the festivities; his father was already down there, undoubtedly dancing with the Spring Maiden - whoever that would be. Probably Gwendolyn, again, though that she-elf was far from a maiden.  
  
Leaping down the branches, he found himself in the middle of one of the smaller, but no less used, dancing squares. No sooner had he landed than he was caught up by some woman, and caught up in the flow of the music. Flutes, stringed instruments, and drums provided a healthy beat, and the singing of various elves added to the excitement. It was not uncommon for some to go into a kind of frenzy; at Midsummer, the magic flowed freely from all sources, and those more sensitive to its ebb and flow tended to go a little mad. Now, the magical tides were at their fullest, and Calix gloried in them. After a few turns around the square, now quite giddy from adrenaline and the fullness of the magic, he made off for the much larger main square, and was again caught up - but this time, by Ailani.  
  
She danced lightly, seeming to float above the ground; her waist was so small that Calix thought he could put his hands around it and the tips of his longest fingers would touch. The muscles under her robes tightened and relaxed as they spun around in the dance. But not her slim figure, nor her incredible agility, was what got Calix's attention.  
  
She was smiling.  
  
For the first time since she had flew from Bevelle, she was smiling with something other than malice or hate. Her eyes were lit with the fires, but they were fires of happiness, joy, and the deep burning that all priestess' eyes held at times when they were feeling their magic, when they were closest to their Goddess.  
  
On this day, many elves took the Old Rites upon themselves, going back into the forests and burning fires and laying with whoever came to them. Normally, elves were not so free with their bodies. But, elves being the magical beings they are, the fullness of life came to all but the youngest of them. It was this, the joining of God and Goddess - for the Elven God was portrayed often as the Avalon Goddess' consort - that the mystics from the Holy Isle said replenished the crops, made the trees grow, and gave back to the Mother what was the Mother's.  
  
To Ailani, it seemed Calix (though she, being drunk on the flow of magic, did not recognize him) had a shadow of horns across his head. The crescent burned on her brow; and she was no longer Ailani the woman, but Ailani the Goddess-Mother.  
  
In the hills the Midsummer fires burned high. Elves danced around them, and life was formed anew.  
  
~*~  
  
Although Seymour, having the magic of the Lifestream still in him, was far more sensitive to the changing of the magic tides than Yuna was, she still felt giddy the day after Midsummer. She slid out of the rumpled bedsheets, gently stroking Seymour's handsome face as she did so, and pulled on her robe. Somewhere, Ailani was no doubt welcoming the dawn with her pagan rituals.Yuna had hoped against hope that Lord Aubrey would calm her down somewhat, but since receiving word that she had fled Bevelle, those hopes had died.  
  
Now, standing out on the balcony of her house, Yuna drew her robe around her and looked at the hills; her balcony faced west, and the first gold sunbeams just touched the tops of the coastal mountains. Not a cloud was seen in the sky; it would be a nice, warm day. Warm enough to go swimming, maybe, in the freshwater lake up the road. It would certainly be good to get out of the house. Yuna was only just getting over her initial heartbreak; now that Seymour was back with her, she would be content in all things. But her daughter - what of her daughter?  
  
"Thinking of someone, my love?"  
  
Yuna jumped, and turned around to see Seymour leaning comfortably against the doorframe. She nodded; he walked across the balcony to her, and wrapped his arms around her as the sun came up. After a time, he said, "Who?"  
  
Yuna was about to tell him your daughter, but remembered that Seymour didn't know that he'd fathered Ailani. So she was silent a moment, then said, "My daughter."  
  
Seymour spun her around. "Your daughter? With whom? It wasn't that.egotistical blitz player, was it?"  
  
"Which one?" Yuna asked, her laugh strained, but sobered. "No, Ailani is not Tidus' child."  
  
Seymour looked at her a little oddly. "Yuna.did you.tell me, did I."  
  
Yuna stepped back from his arms, shaking and bobbing her head yes. "Yes, Seymour.you have a daughter, and her name is Ailani." 


	9. Lies, Truths, and Al Bhed

Author's Notes: I reloaded chapter 1, because of all the inconsistencies between it and the other chapters..just thought it a kind gesture  
  
Seymour blinked. "My..daughter? I.."  
  
Yuna squeezed his hand affectionately. "Yes, love, you have a daughter. As I said, her name is Ailani, and she..takes after you." Yuna sighed. "I don't know where she got her personality, though..she's devilish at best. I had hoped marrying her to Lord Aubrey would calm her down - "  
  
Seymour's eyes snapped open. "You married my daughter to Lord Aubrey Braeden?"  
  
"Yes, he being one of the younger and yet more influential Lords, I thought - "  
  
He grabbed her shoulders, looking intensely into her eyes. "Yuna..Lord Aubrey.." slowly he released her shoulders, his eyes distant and pensive. "No..you wouldn't know.."  
  
Yuna, naturally, became more than a little annoyed that she didn't know the thing that he knew. "If you would kindly tell me about the man that our daughter is wed to!"  
  
Seymour leaned in close. "He is a demon, one of the worst of the demon princes. He seeks only to get a son or sons out of Ailani and then he will either force her to turn to his order and turn her into a demi-demon, or he will kill her."  
  
"Lord Aubrey would never do such a thing! He is a respected Lord - "  
  
"Yuna," Seymour said gently, "You said the same thing about I when I was corrupting the whole of Yevon from the inside out."  
  
Yuna quieted. Seymour turned to the hills and the now-bright sky. "All in the past..but this is the present, my dear. Yuna, we have to go to Ailani..I fear Aubrey has hurt her in some way, and though I never met my own seed, I surely will do all I can to protect her," he said, and swallowed. "Yuna, I just..I want to redeem my mistakes in the past. I want my daughter to be safe."  
  
Yuna embraced him around his ribs, which was as high up as she could reach, and Seymour in turn placed his hands on her back, hugging her tightly as they slowly rose off the balcony. Yuna raised her head and gasped. "Seymour, what - "  
  
"Shh," Seymour said, concentrating. "It is one of the last of the magics that the Planet gave me; specific spells for specific tasks. This is the last one that I understand the use of.." he trailed off, muttering.  
  
They rocketed away over the ocean, headed towards a land that they had never seen.  
  
A leaf fluttered down on her face, tickling her nose into sneezing. Had it not been for that, Ailani de Braska Guado, Priestess of Avalon, would have kept on sleeping until the afternoon.  
  
But, as it was, she sneezed again and opened one blue eye, lazily surveying what she could see through that one, and then closed it and opened the other. Her front was very cold; where were her robes? But her back was warm, and she was covered with a warm thing, so she snuggled back against it and closed her eyes.  
  
And opened them again as she realized that the warm thing behind and on top of her was a person. A man.  
  
Twisting around, Ailani saw a healthy crop of hair, black as a raven's wing, and falling over the elf's face. He was still asleep, but waking; the muscles in his arms, honed from archery and swordsmanship, tightened, then relaxed, and Calix Gwydion woke up.  
  
Ailani wanted rather badly to hit him soundly across the face for what it was rather apparent they had done, but knew that at Midsummer she, being sensitive to the flow of magic, would get volatile and be possessed by the Goddess. She also knew, and this was really what restrained her hand, that the elves kept Beltane as faithfully as any priestess. So there was nothing for her to be angry at, unless she was angry with her own person. It wasn't Calix's fault.  
  
Calix, for his part, looked up at her with sleepy forest-green eyes that glittered in the mottled light of the grove they were in, and smiled. The hard walls around Ailani's heart, put there by years of loneliness and teasing, lowered and she smiled back, sincerely. "Good morning, Calix."  
  
"Good morning, Ailani."  
  
He sat up, and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over the four fingers, feeling the calluses. "Summer is here."  
  
"Indeed." With that, the walls raised again and Ailani batted away his hand and sat up, rubbing her blue-pattered forehead. "Where is my robe?"  
  
Calix made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "Somewhere 'round here. I don't know."  
  
Ailani stood and shivered in the morning chill. Seeing her robes over a low branch, she half-ran over and slipped them on, the dark cloth enveloping her warmly, finding the sickle knife and wrapping that around her waist. Finding her footwear, too, Ailani slipped her feet into them and then took the trail down from the glade.  
  
From the branches, a certain Al Bhed watched. Her light hair was bound up away from her face, and her muscles tensed as the blue-haired priestess walked under her branch. As Ailani was kinswoman to her, Rikku felt she had to watch out for the child her own cousin had given to Lulu and Wakka, to be raised biased against her father. Rikku had heard a six-year-old Ailani spouting hatred against the man whom her mother loved. She knew the lies that Ailani had been told as a little child; her mother had been raped and so she had been begotten by a halfbreed with nefarious intentions; lies, all of it. Rikku hadn't expected any more from Seymour, his past being what it was. She had, after all, walked in on them in Macalania.  
  
***Flashback***  
  
Rikku rose from bed, quite bored and still uneasy with the Thunder Plains so close. She would have liked to be on Bikanel, at Home.far, far away from the flashing terror of the expanse that was the road to Macalania Temple. But no, Yuna had to come and give her assent to marrying Maester Seymour - and Rikku had felt a little insulted about that, too. Anything was preferable to Yuna continuing her pilgrimage, but Rikku didn't trust Seymour farther than she could throw him, and with her slight weight, it wasn't far. Rikku was also annoyed that certain people in the group seemed to think that she was romantically interested in Sir Auron.  
  
Why should I like someone who has no more mind to me than to a chocobo? Rikku wondered. People can be so fickle.  
  
Now out on the night-chiled icy plains, Rikku started jogging to keep warm. She brought out what the Al Bhed were called a "flashlight" and pointed it around, her sharp eyes catching the movements of fiends and dispatching them before they reached her. Reaching her destination of Macalania Temple, Rikku opened the door and went inside, thankful no overpious monk was there to impede her.  
  
Inside the great hall of the Temple, it was almost perfectly silent, except for the faint sound of the Hymn of the Fayth emanating from the chambers within. Rikku nodded briefly to the sleepy acolyte who was sitting outside the entrance to the Cloister of Trials, then proceeded towards one of the side rooms, hoping to get something resembling normal sleep before she had to get back - which she could do, if she wished.  
  
And all desire to sleep fled from her as she saw the two figures standing near the heater in the room to which she had just opened the door.  
  
Yuna turned around, most likely to yell at whoever had come in, and instead caught her breath in her throat and started gagging. The man who was standing next to her, not quite fully dressed, turned and patted Yuna on the back a couple times. Then he, too, noticed Rikku.  
  
"What exactly are you doing here?" Seymour demanded. Rikku paid him no heed; her eyes were fixed on the summoner next to him who was sheepishly putting on the rest of her clothes  
  
"I could ask the same of her. What are you doing here, Yunie?" Rikku asked in a softer tone of voice, stepping forward. "I thought you were back at the Agency."  
  
Yuna blushed a little and said, fiddling with the beads on her belt, "No, I was.praying.at the.um."  
  
Rikku raised an eyebrow. Seymour looked between them, stumped. Had this been any normal acolyte, he would have simply threatened them with the wrath of Yevon, but this was his beloved's kinswoman.could he truly bring any harm to her, real or imagined?  
  
Yuna looked up at her cousin, across the wavering hot air of the heater. "Cousin.if you could.keep this secret."  
  
Rikku nodded, and smiled. "Of course, Yunie."  
  
***End flashback***  
  
Rikku looked down on Yuna's daughter, gotten by Seymour, and with ideas about her father so wild they bordered on incredulity. She had begged Yuna to let Ailani be raised at the new Al Bhed Home, so that she might be accepted and love herself as she was; but Yuna had instead given the little fair blue-haired baby girl to Lulu and Wakka to raise.  
  
Now it was time to undo the damage. 


	10. Nenya Unleashed

It was summer in Niwe Forest; hot, but comfortably so. Ailani found excuses to go swimming in the lakes around Silverwood, diving deep under the surface and swimming with the little tiny Aulii fish that flitted amongst the boulders. Underground streams and snowmelt fed the lakes; too cold for algae to grow. It was on one such day, after a particularly deep and long dive, which, despite her prowess at magic, left her breathless, that Ailani's fears were realized.  
  
Her first clue was the faint wisp of smoke from Silverwood that was almost never there. It was summer; fires were lit only at night, and then for light, on torches and lamps, never in fireplaces. Despite the vehement protests of her muscles, Ailani shifted her stroke from a slow backstroke to a faster freestyle, sprinting out the water as fast as she could and hurriedly dressing in the light forest garb of the elves. Grabbing up Caladbolg, she ran until she reached the cliffs overlooking the main part of Silverwood; she then slowed her pace from a sprint to a stalk, and then dropped to her belly, crawling to the very edge and peering cautiously down.  
  
Smoke rose from three or four torched houses on the outskirts; the flames were already licking at the houses near them. Whispering a spell, Ailani smiled in satisfaction as the flames turned into steam and blinded the small invading specks now in Silverwood.  
  
Invading Silverwood? She thought. Who would be so brash as to do that? And on the heels of that, Oh, no.  
  
A crossbow quarrel smacked the stone a few feet below her head, and bounced off. Ailani swore and crawled hastily back from the edge of the cliff and moved her sword belt so that the hilt of Caladbolg was above her right shoulder; a better position for running. Nearer to town she could switch it back to her hip and took off again. Worrying about how she would get down to the fighting without getting killed, Ailani almost hit the fence of the pasture - of course!  
  
Nenya pranced with eagerness as her skilled fingers tightened the girth of the saddle, slipped the hackamore over his head, and tied Caladbolg's scabbard on. Vaulting into place, Ailani tapped Nenya's sides, his ears flattened, and he took off down the aisle in the stables. Crouched low over his withers, Ailani raised a hand and blasted open the stables doors, and the blue-and-silver blur sped off towards the fighting. Faces were a continuous line of color; the eyes of horse and rider were on the smoke billowing again from the houses, and two pairs of ears were tuned to the zing of crossbows.  
  
Calix, in the most heated part of the battle, heard the terrified shouts and saw a large group of drow go streaking past him, chattering loudly. Then the sound of hoofbeats reached his ears and he swung around, his verdant eyes on the rider that had just galloped straight into the heat of the battle.  
  
And he swore.  
  
Ailani drove her sword home, into the throat of the drow priestess who had been chanting and standing behind the other male drow. The pale-haired, black-robed priestess of Lolth was the antithesis of a priestess of Avalon, and Ailani hated them with a passion. The drow, seeing her rage, scattered as she glared around at them and raised her sword, dripping black with the blood of their brethren.  
  
The spell hit her hard in the back, knocking her to the ground. Gritting her teeth, Ailani put up a Reflect spell just in time to block the next spell and send it back at the caster. Ignoring the ache in her kidneys, she rose to face her attacker. Blue, raging eyes met red ones, and the demon cackled.  
  
"Master wants you, pretty one," it said, advancing towards her. "Master says to fetch you."  
  
For the first time, a shiver of fear raced down Ailani's spine. "Your master will not have me!" she cried, and started casting an Ultima spell. Her words were cut off as the demon raised his hand and made it a fist. Ailani flew into the air and hung there as though something were gripping her neck. She frantically scrabbled at her neck, her eyes bulging wide. The demon got so close that Ailani could make out the facets around the pupil of the bloodshot eye.  
  
"What Master wants, Master gets," the demon hissed, and with a casual flick of his wrist, he flung Ailani twenty feet; she hit the side of a house and slid down, a crumpled heap. The demon cackled again and started over to pick up his prize; Master would handsomely reward him for this!  
  
And stopped as his body froze in place. The demon found his eyes worked, forcing them as far over as they would go, the demon watched as the great silver horse, a light now shining brightly on his chest and a silver horn on his head, charged towards him. The hooves made the sound of the wizard horses of Kamali's Dale; like silver on stone. The death-knell of a demon.  
  
The stallion's light and the shimmer of the horn intensified as they reached the demon, and it appeared that Nenya passed through it, the demon disintegrating upon contact. Nenya wheeled, and slowly trotted over to where Ailani was watching through half-open eyes. The great horse tenderly touched his horn to her shoulder, there was a single, brilliant flash of light, and Ailani rose, her wounds healed. She looked incredulously at her horse, which pawed the ground and tossed his mane. Reaching out slowly, she patted his nose. The horse accepted her caress, then tossed his head again, this time at two figures just landing, one watching with some trepidation the fast-retreating backs of the drow, and one silently observing the female copy of himself. Ailani's eyes were also staring back at the man, only hers were full of hatred.  
  
"So," she breathed, "You have come here."  
  
Seymour nodded. "I have." He cautiously walked over to where she stood, her sword in her hand. She glanced down at it, and smirked up at him.  
  
"You know, the punishment for rape is death - "  
  
Seymour sighed. "I didn't rape your mother.although, now that we look on it, we know we weren't prepared for the possible outcomes."  
  
"No, obviously you weren't," Ailani replied caustically. Calix, looking after the soldiers hastily mustered for the battle, looked over at the tableau, thought about getting involved, and then decided it wasn't worth the loss of a limb.  
  
Yuna caught Calix's glance, and peered at him. "Aren't you that escort we had?"  
  
Calix straightened from where he was tending a slash on Alastair's forearm, and levelly met her gaze. "I am, Lady Yuna. I am also Prince Calix Gwydion of Silverwood - where you seem to have found yourself." He turned to face the tense Seymour. "I assume you are Lady Ailani's father?"  
  
"He doesn't deserve to be called that," Ailani said shrilly. "He raped - "  
  
"For the last bloody time, I did no such thing to your mother!" Seymour exploded, grasping his daughter's shoulders. "I do not know what lies your head has been filled with about me, but as I stand, I would never do such a thing to Yuna!" He took a breath, and released Ailani. "I love her far too much to ever think of it."  
  
Ailani's look, though still acidic, lost some of its sting as her gaze shifted from mother to father and back. It was then that Rikku, having stood in the still-smoking ruins of the house behind Ailani, chose to reveal herself.  
  
"You should believe them, you know?" she said quietly. Yuna smiled warmly at her cousin, glad to see her here. Ailani, however, looked warily at Rikku.  
  
"You're an Al Bhed," she said.  
  
"And you are a Priestess," Rikku replied in a cheery tone, "Of whatever island Yunie said it was."  
  
"Avalon," mother and daughter chorused. Rikku shrugged.  
  
"Whatever. Ailani." the Al Bhed reached out to her cousin, but Ailani drew back.  
  
"You are - "  
  
"Heathen? Is Wakka still spouting that nonsense? And is Lulu still telling you how much of a bastard your father is?" The petite thief laughed. "Don't believe 'em."  
  
Ailani, cowed for the moment, remained silent, scuffing at the ground with her toe. Calix, wishing to end the tense silence, stepped forward and said, "Lord Seymour, Ladies, I extend the hospitality of Silverwood to you."  
  
Rikku bubbled up and down. "That would be great!" Yuna's acceptance was more subdued with a "Thank you, Prince Calix," and Seymour nodded and said nothing; his eyes were on his daughter. Ailani mumbled something about having to take care of Nenya and led her horse off in the general direction of the stables. Calix made a mental note to take his own horse out and find her after settling the three newcomers in.  
  
Lord Aubrey's fingers clenched around the male drow's throat. "Why is my bride not here?" he said in his most dangerous voice. The drow, clawing at his hand, choked out "I don't know sir!"  
  
Aubrey's fingers continued to tighten until a resounding crack said that the drow's neck had snapped. Tossing the now-limp body over in a corner, Aubrey turned and stared into the flames, the orange glow turning his almost-white hair flaxen. Ailani should be now at his side, the to-be queen of the Underworld. Well, Aubrey thought, smiling into the fire, she would be here, sooner or later. It was all a matter of time. 


	11. Between Fire and Earth

Author's Notes: Don't worry, this isn't turning into The Mists of Avalon.  
  
Calix rode through the forest, his chestnut mare cantering easily along, her ears pricked. The trail of dug-up turf led deep into the Niwe Forest.  
  
He asked his mare Alexia for just a little bit more speed and she gave it without missing a beat, changing from a canter to a gallop in half a stride. She was, obviously, an elfin horse, one of the best, bred from the old stock without any wizard enhancements. The trail veered off suddenly into dense brush, and Calix had to slow Alexia and turn her before they were able to more slowly proceed into the thicket. Crashing sounds ahead - Where is all the grace of Avalon, dear Ailani? Calix thought - denoted that they were not far behind, and Calix stood in his stirrups and called out, "Ailani!"  
  
The crashing sounds stopped; they must have gotten to the far side of the thicket. Alexia nickered and picked up the pace to a trot, and soon they broke out onto the top ridge of the farthest arm of the Ameya Mountains. Below, heat shimmered off the tops of the trees, giving the whole forest the appearance of crawling with bugs. Ahead, Ailani was dismounting and taking off the saddle, walking over to the edge of the ridge and looking out over the broad valley.  
  
Calix slowed his mare as they approached, and Nenya raised his head and nickered. Alexia answered in kind, and soon both horses were grazing together. While the great stallion wasn't sweaty, Calix noted that his steps were no longer as springy as they once were. So the great Nenya had finally tired somewhat.  
  
The Goddess save us, the world is coming to an end, Calix thought.  
  
Ailani had produced a little flute and was playing a mournful sort of tune on it. Calix stood there, watching her play; then after a time, he walked forward to stand beside her. Though her head was high and there was no prevailing wind, tears were very slowly sliding out over her eyelids. When she spoke, her voice was perfectly calm.  
  
"I never expected that to happen. For all of them to deny it so vehemently.I can't say now that they're just covering up." She quietly sank to the ground, her flute across her lap, still crying. "And this with Aubrey..if I had only realized him for what he was earlier.."  
  
Calix acted on his first impulse and gave her a hug; to his surprise she threw her arms around him and cried - softly, of course. For half an hour, they sat like that, Ailani slowly working her way to dry sobs, Calix holding her tenderly to his chest, and the horses munching on the grass. Finally Ailani sat up and dried her eyes with the sleeve of her tunic. Her face was nonchalant again; she gave a final sniff and rose, tucking her flute back away and silently mounting Nenya. The stallion moved off at a slower pace, and Calix thoughtfully touched the damp spot on his own tunic, then smiled and mounted his own mare, and returned to Silverwood.  
  
"It appears," Aubrey said angrily, "That you are none of you competent enough to kidnap a girl!"  
  
The assorted drow and demons around him winced at the tone in his voice. Aubrey's eyes glowed their hereditary red only when he was feeling murderous; and now they were red as spilled blood on a white cloth. His pale hair flowed behind him as he paced up and down their length, glaring at them all. He was wearing black; a black cloak with a silver clasp was tossed over his shoulders.  
  
"I see no reason why I should not have Lady Ailani now," he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. One of the drow priestesses shifted her feet, and Aubrey whirled, grabbing her neck and slamming her against the wall; his fingernails dug into the dark skin and the priestess choked.  
  
"Are you uncomfortable?" Aubrey hissed. "Good."  
  
The priestess gurgled, and a bubble of blood formed on her lips. The male drow moved away a step. Vainly she tried to fight, scrabble for her snake- headed whip; she went limp soon after. Aubrey laughed and licked away the blood on his hands, like a cat cleaning itself. Turning away, he said, "As you lot have proved yourselves unworthy to reclaim a person for me, I suppose I must do this myself." Loud protests to the contrary broke out on all sides; each saying in their own language that they were competent enough. Aubrey ignored them all and said, "Is there anyone here with half a mind who can Send a message?"  
  
One of the priestesses (Ironically, the sister of the now-dead one) stepped forward reluctantly. Aubrey smiled, showing sharp fangs that had most certainly not been there five minutes ago.  
  
"Let us pay the Lady Ailani a visit."  
  
The hall in the Palace was full of laughter; Ailani, though a little quiet, was warming to the cheerful elves around her. All were celebrating the summer in general and the success in defeating the raiding party that afternoon. Such was their joy that the shadowy figure stepping out of the fire was not immediately noticed. Only Ailani, after feeling a sudden chill come over her, stood and looked around. And screamed.  
  
The shadowy figure lifted its hand. "Lady Ailani..you could be Princess, and Queen in time."  
  
Ailani made a vehement banishing gesture; the figure did not dissipate. It laughed, and drew off its cloak.  
  
Aubrey.  
  
Ailani screamed "Get you back, hellspawn!" and made the gesture again.  
  
Aubrey drew forward, a pleasant smile on his handsome face. Levitating over the table, he gently caressed Ailani's cheek; she pulled back and drew her sword, creating a fireball in the other. "I am no longer yours!" she said, and tossed the fireball at him. With a wave of his hand, it dissolved. Aubrey laughed softly.  
  
"Dear Ailani," he said. "You have not changed."  
  
Ailani thrust forward with Caladbolg; the sword tip passed completely through Aubrey, and came back with none of the residue that a Mist spell would. Ailani said, "Sending!"  
  
Farther down the table, Yuna looked questioningly at Seymour, who was muttering away to himself. Looking down at her, he said quietly, "She doesn't mean he's an Unsent."  
  
"Then what is she talking about?"  
  
Seymour bit his lip. "A Sending, in the parlance of Avalon, is when one person projects a form of themselves somewhere else to give a message. But what is he trying to say.?"  
  
Aubrey's specter answered that. "Ailani.if you will not come willingly.then I shall take you myself. Take care, Ailani! You are not safe in your own fortress!"  
  
The specter spun around, and vanished in a wisp of purple smoke. Ailani sank to the floor; Calix, Seymour, and Yuna ran over. She was breathing, but barely; her body glowed with a soft blue light. Calix lit a fire on one of his fingertips and touched it to the glow; the fire went out. "A ward. Good girl."  
  
Seymour nodded. "Do you think she'll be all right?"  
  
Calix put two fingers to her neck; Ailani's pulse was strong and regular. "She just had a shock. She'll be fine."  
  
Ailani took a deep breath, and sat up. She was pale as death, her sweat cold. The entire hall was in an uproar; many elves were standing in their seats to see the small group clustered around the priestess. All went silent as Calix stood and Seymour helped his daughter to her feet.  
  
"Double the watch." 


	12. The Darkness of the Night

Author's notes: Well hoooooleee, schnookies! Sorry for the long wait, but like some of you saw, I got the prequel for Priestess of the Guado up - it's called "The First Priestess," go check it out if you like.  
  
---***---  
  
On the walls of the Palace, guards walked tensely in pairs, torches held high and hands on their swords. Fairy fire lit the Palace and part of the town below, bathing it in a greenish glow. Despite this, no one noticed the shadow flitting over the wall and down towards a window on the west face of the Palace.  
  
Below that room Seymour paced nervously. The hair on the back of his neck tingled with all the magic that was being used that night; but also with fear for his daughter's life. Yuna slept peacefully in the bed, and every so often Seymour would stop and stroke her face. But still he paced, mulling over the two spells left in the repertoire that the Planet had given him, and wondering what they were for. One was a spell of command, used for opening doors and such - that one he knew, but he did not know what he was to open. The other..  
  
The shadow hovered near the window of the room it wanted into. Inside, a girl slept, her blue hair wrought silver in the moonlight, the pale tracings of an ancestral design across her face. The shadow sensed another in the room with her - an elf, probably that hated princeling that had stolen Ailani away. The shadow shrugged to itself and turned its gaze back to the girl, its target.  
  
Calix's fingers twitched on the sword of his ancestors, given to him when he was old enough to wield a proper blade - Leloup, in the old language - the wolf. Indeed it was said that the sword had a hunger of its own for whatever its handler deemed a threat. Particularly demons.  
  
He had been awake for almost a day straight, and as he stared at the sleeping priestess whom he guarded, Calix could not help but notice how very black the shadows were that night. The moon through the giant silverwood trees created a variety of fascinating patterns with the shadows as well. Why, that one there, that was a man's outstretched hand. And there was a face -  
  
Sleep-deprived as he was, Calix sat up and watched with growing horror as the shadows appeared to slide off the bed and onto the floor. They pooled, then a long strand rose into the air, gradually forming itself into a man's body, covered in a long, heavy black cloak with a silver clasp, with the hood thrown back. The man had light, silvery-white hair and was so pale that he reflected the moonlight, and rivaled it. He reached out with a hand and gently stroked Ailani's cheek; the fingers were tipped with long nails like Seymour's, painted black.  
  
In her sleep, Ailani grimaced.  
  
Calix rose and pointed his sword at Aubrey, muttering a spell. Aubrey laughed and waved a hand, and a wall of purple flame rose between Calix and Aubrey, blocking Ailani from view as well. Angry now, Calix cast a different spell and the flames immediately vanished. Aubrey tucked his cloak around Ailani; her breathing was no longer easy as it had been, but now heavy and labored as though something were on her chest.  
  
"You failed, elf," Aubrey said triumphantly. With that both he and Ailani collapsed into shadows and flew for the window. Calix leapt for the pane, but before he could shut it, the Aubrey-Ailani shadow had slipped out and disappeared into the night.  
  
Slamming his fist into the windowsill, Calix stepped back and half-flew, half-ran down the stairs, banging on doors and waking everyone he thought mattered up. In the midst of the confusion he strode out to the balcony that not too long ago she had been practicing with her sword, and fell to his knees, sobbing.  
  
"AILANI!"  
  
---***---  
  
Bahamut watched very unhappily as the beacon of light that had been Ailani shaded over with gray mist and made for Bloodmoon Tower, Aubrey's personal gateway to hell. Beside him, Shiva, the aeon that had voluntarily chosen to watch over her and guide her to her destiny sighed. The Dragon King thought that Shiva did not look her normal - he smiled at the pun - cool self. Her head hung low and she pulled her cloak about her.  
  
"Shiva."  
  
She turned her back to him. "I failed in my duty to the Daughter of Yuna the Dreamer."  
  
Bahamut sighed. Shiva had experienced failure but little, and for her to fail in protecting the Daughter of Yuna the Dreamer had hit her hard.  
  
Dreamers were the aeons' name for summoners. In truth, an aeon was the dream of all the free people of Spira; formed by their strength, fueled by their determination. All the aeons had known that Yuna the Dreamer was to be the one to finally set them free of their rocky prisons. Now that that was accomplished, they were free to their own business, and all of them set to it with vigor. Their one promise was that they would always keep the goals given to the people of the world in line.  
  
Bahamut sighed again; he hadn't wanted to tell Shiva that she was supposed to fail. He didn't intend to, either; it would only drive the Ice Guardian into a flying rage, and then he would have to ask Ifrit to melt the icicles off his wings again. Instead he tried offering comfort. "Shiva, without you, Ailani would have been dead."  
  
"It was all in accordance; Ailani is the Queen of Air and Water. I failed - "  
  
"You would rather I had given this to Leviathan, or Valefor?"  
  
Shiva glared up at him. "They gave no indication -"  
  
"And neither did you, when Ailani's destiny was to be set in motion. You volunteered, Shiva, remember?"  
  
She looked away again. "I think that an aeon in accordance with her element - "  
  
"Shiva, you're the only one who could have manipulated events so smoothly that she would have thought they were her own doing. Leviathan offered, but you know him. He took one look at Ailani and what her future would be and backed out. And Valefor is too passive. He would have taken it on; but he wouldn't have had the strength to draw out that much power from Nenya."  
  
He walked away from the giant three-dimensional that displayed all the beings on the planet, silently ticking off bits of Ailani's destiny in his mind.  
  
Shiva pondered what Bahamut had said. Indeed, the great steed had taken a special liking to Ailani, but after years of confinement in the deepest basements of Bloodmoon, he hadn't the strength to summon the Inner Protector. Only with a little boost from her had he accomplished it. But he had the strength now. Shiva watched sadly as Ailani's beam of light was further eclipsed by the darkness; she had no doubts that Ailani had woken and that Aubrey was having his way with her. She had cringed every time that damned demon had "made love" to her. Love it was not; in fact, if Shiva had had any say, Aubrey might as well have called it rape.  
  
Shiva turned and looked at the dimmed beam of light that was that elf that continued to amaze all the aeons. Poor boy, she thought, his only love was currently surrounded by a deep darkness. For a year she had prevented that darkness from taking hold in the light of Ailani; for a year more she would, if necessary.  
  
Shiva busied herself with consoling Calix subconsciously, putting thoughts and ideas into his mind and being so skillful she knew he thought it was his own. She moved to the Redeemed next; Spira had given him a chance to prove he could be trusted, and so far he was passing with highest marks. He always had. She turned to the Dreamer Yuna, and gently touched her with a little happiness; she had her love back.  
  
At last Shiva turned back to Ailani, and gave the poor girl what comfort she could. She would see to it that Ailani remained alive. Bahamut was hiding something, Shiva could tell, and she had a distinct feeling that she did not want to know what it was.  
  
---***---  
  
Weeping for the first time in a long time, Ailani quietly set herself in order, dabbing the blood from her neck, repairing as best she could the crescent moon on her forehead, re-braiding her hair. Aubrey watched, sadistically amused, as she put her head in her hands and then ran them over the top of her head.  
  
"Ailani.Princess Ailani.Queen Ailani Braeden," he purred. She looked at him with that icy-fire look that so suited her. Crossing the room, still without a garment covering what he knew was a very well-muscled chest that he knew she watched without wanting to watch, Aubrey stood over her, smiling toothily. His demon half had gotten the best of him and he'd sunk his fangs into her, savoring the hot blood. She had torn herself away from him, silly girl, and ripped half the skin on her neck right off. Not wanting his father to ask questions, Aubrey had repaired the damage. That, and the part of his host body that was still the actual human Aubrey Braeden had nagged at him. Demon Aubrey hated this; more and more he was exterminating the thing that always made him kick himself whenever he caused an ugly purple bruise to come up on Ailani's skin.  
  
Demon Aubrey also desired a son. He had, of course, sired many daughters and various bastard sons by other women, but Aubrey wanted a son with no taint to his parentage. And he would have that son from a priestess of Avalon, and when she was with that child he would make her a demon, forcing her to drink from the Cup of the Damned if need be. Demon Aubrey wanted Ailani, and as he was first in line for the throne, he got what he wanted, through force or persuasion or outright manipulation.  
  
Aubrey smiled a little gentler than he'd intended to at Ailani, and for a moment her staunch defense wavered. The blue moon gleamed between her brows; he reached down and touched it.  
  
"Priestess Ailani.Priestess of the Guado nation." 


	13. Running out of Time

Author's notes: Shortly, here, this'll be done. ::sniffles:: I'm sad to see it go.  
  
---***---  
  
Caleb spread his hands on the finished surface of the wood table. They were in the war room, seldom used by the generals in the City of the Elves, Silverwood, but one of their number was missing. And judging by the size of the drow-demon raid on Silverwood for Ailani, she would be sorely needed for her powers as a healer and a wizard. For if - when, Caleb scolded himself - when Ailani returned here, Aubrey would surely send an army to retrieve her.  
  
His son was sitting in one of the chairs; his normally clearly green eyes were reddend with crying. Next to him, Seymour was comforting Yuna, who was also crying. Alastair and Rikku were also there, the elvish ranger looking unflappable as always and the Al Bhed thief's expression a mixture of anger and sadness. They would have a bare three days or so, by Caleb's reckoning, before they would have to leave for Bloodmoon.  
  
"So," he said softly. "You all know what you have to do?"  
  
His eyes met with five pairs of emotional eyes and he nodded. "Very well then. You will leave tomorrow at dawn - "  
  
Rikku flew to her feet. "We need a chance to grieve, you know?" she said.  
  
Caleb looked levelly at her. "Grieve for what?"  
  
Rikku lowered her eyes. "Well.. maybe grieve isn't the right word. But we need more than a day!"  
  
He sighed. "I wish I could give you more than that, Miss Rikku. But time runs short for Ailani."  
  
Rikku sat again; to his surprise, Alastair leaned forward and patted her on the shoulder. Caleb boxed his surprise for the moment. "In any case..I will make sure you all are outfitted as finely as you can be. Dismissed."  
  
---***---  
  
Calix wandered down to the city, a little unhappy about having no time to set his thoughts in order but knowing his father too well. Caleb would never give the enemy more time than he thought necessary; never enough for the opposition to do anything with. Finding himself at the stables, he slid it open and walked down the aisle to the biggest box stall they had, the one that housed Nenya. It came complete with an ungated run out to the pasture, where most of the horses were now. Calix expected the stall to be empty, but found Nenya inside.  
  
Nenya was standing sorrowfully in the back of his stall, looking out towards the pasture. His coat, shining like silver just a few hours before, was now dulled. The spark in his eyes had gone out as well, and when he moved to weakly nuzzle Calix's ear, his movements were slow and pained. Calix stroked the soft neck. "You miss Ailani too, don't you?"  
  
The stallion snorted, trying valiantly to toss his mane and stamp. Calix winced at the obvious effort behind those movements and patted Nenya's neck again. "We're going there tomorrow. Do you want to come?"  
  
The stallion bobbed his head up and down in as close an assent as he could get without speaking, though Calix had long ago decided Nenya was smart enough to speak if he wanted to. He gave Nenya a final pat, filled his feed and water troughs, and left, his head down low and his hands in his pockets.  
  
---***---  
  
Seymour was pacing along the outdoor promenade, occasionally emitting a thoughtful sort of 'hm.' Yuna watched him with more than a little trepidation. Caleb had called Seymour aside and had told him what he knew of the layout of Bloodmoon, and where Ailani would be found. But it was not this that Seymour was thinking about.  
  
The last spell the Planet had given him was a spell of release - the key to the lock on a great power. Seymour knew that there was no such spell that was in common circulation; the Planet must have made it on its own. The question as to why the Planet had done so was debatable. It could be that the 'key' was to the 'lock' of the thing that could destroy Bloodmoon and free Ailani, but it didn't seem like that. The Planet was also trying very hard to tell him that the spellkey fitted into the lock on a particular person. Aubrey? He wasn't sure.  
  
Finally Yuna, dizzied somewhat by his pacing and now very anxious, went up and grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Seymour," she asked softly. "What's going to happen to Ailani if we fail to rescue her?"  
  
Seymour smiled down at her, though it was only a smile on his face. "Don't worry. Ailani will be all right." He repeated it to himself softly, because he needed to believe it as well. "She'll be all right."  
  
Yuna seemed to pick up on his doubt because she put her arms around him and began to cry - quietly, as was her nature. Unable to stop himself, Seymour cried as well. After a time, Yuna spoke.  
  
"What'll happen if Ailani.?"  
  
Seymour shook his head. "I don't know."  
  
She looked out over the city. "Will she be all right?"  
  
Seymour shook his head again. "I don't know, love. But Ailani is a strong woman, very strong both mentally and physically. Reminds me of someone."  
  
Yuna smiled at him. "Me?"  
  
He nodded. "Ailani is your mirror - albeit her outward image is different." Seymour looked to the west, where he knew Bloodmoon tower stood amid clouds of roiling steam and ash, poking out of a volatile mix of scalding hot springs and toxic pools. "And I know she has the best of both of us."  
  
---***---  
  
Rikku paced unhappily; the cooling midafternoon sun feeling pleasant against her desert-tanned skin. In the shadows, Alastair watched her bemusedly. The elf had a good two hundred years on her, though they looked the same age. Only where Alastair had spent most of his 200-odd years honing his fighting skill, Rikku had been learning how to use the machina she'd salvaged with her fellow Al Bhed. Her mind was her weapon; and Alastair knew that in the end the mind would win over the muscle. But she was pacing wrong, and Alastair, seeing a chance for humor, stepped out of the shadows. Rikku jumped in pretend fright.  
  
"Don't scare me like that, ya know?" she said angrily. "I thought you were one of those nasty demon things."  
  
Alastair raised an eyebrow. "Nasty demon things?" he repeated. Rikku nodded vehemently.  
  
"Though you're a little pale..well, a lot pale for them. They're scary.."  
  
"What, the drow?" Alastair drew himself up, not meaning to take offense but doing so. "I am not to be compared to the drow! Nor is any other elf in the Silver City."  
  
Rikku shrugged. "You spend so much time hiding from the sun that a person would think you are."  
  
"I thought you were beyond such childish things.."  
  
Rikku mimicked his stance. "Yeah, and I suppose a great swordmaster such as yourself would know what such childish things are?"  
  
Alastair growled. Rikku giggled. "You're cute when you're upset."  
  
He turned his back. "You are immature!" This only made Rikku laugh harder. A clatter from above them made both the ranger and the Al Bhed look up, Rikku stuffing the fist that didn't have the Godhand on it into her mouth to stifle her giggling. Calix's head appeared at one of the windows.  
  
"Will you both quiet down?!" he yelled at them. Alastair frowned and Rikku took her fist out of her mouth.  
  
"Will you stop moping?!" she yelled back up at him, her hands on her hips.  
  
"You do not tell the prince what to do!"  
  
Rikku threw her hands up into the air. "You are both so depressing!"  
  
---***---  
  
The part of Aubrey's mind that still contained vestiges of a conscience was sulking.  
  
It had once again gotten into an argument with Demon Aubrey, had once again lost a little more of itself to the darkness. And now it was very upset.  
  
The time of prophecy was near, Demon Aubrey had said in his usual bad mood. Human Aubrey had replied that Ailani, or the Daughter of Dreams, would use the Steed of Air to overpower the darkness and would so save the world as her mother had.  
  
Demon Aubrey had smiled that evil, fang-filled smile, and said that that was not how it was going to be, that since the prophecy had been laid down mankind had been given free will - Choice, it said, was always what changed the prophecy.  
  
Human Aubrey had replied (waspishly, he decided to add to his thoughts) that it was the job of the aeons to keep the goals, or destinies, of the people in line. Demon Aubrey had said that the time of the aeons was ended and that Choice would reign again.  
  
Choice was the downfall of humanity, Demon Aubrey had continued, and when Choice had been given to the peoples of the Planet, then his father's time had come. Choice had given them debauchery, malice, destruction, and rebellion. Until then they had done as the spirits of the land had commanded without a thought towards their wishes.  
  
Human Aubrey had then retreated back to its ever-shrinking corner of Aubrey's consciousness, and pouted.  
  
The time of prophecy was upon them, Human Aubrey thought with a final nod to itself. 


	14. Unholy Preparations

Note: I'm going to put this up anyway, even with the thing all freaky. Sorry about that.bear with me, and I'll reload all the chapters that I update that are affected. Sorry for the long wait, I was on vacation. Do not worry, I made up for the lateness with an extra-long chapter. Enjoy!  
  
---***---  
  
Ailani sat on a corner of her bed, in the room that had been given to her. There were no windows; only a small slit opening out onto the corridor beyond the door, which was locked. She felt very dirty; she doubted a dive into the pool of that bubbling, volatile liquid in which this beastly tower was situated would cleanse her. But Ailani was also feeling something she had never felt before.  
  
Ailani de Braska Guado felt helpless.  
  
Her magic seemed suppressed somehow; she had tried an Echo Screen, thinking maybe she had been Silenced, but it had nott worked. Ailani knew that even if she had been able to use her magic, there were ancient spells on that door that wouldn't allow so much as a grain of dust to pass it. Her sword had been taken from her, as had the little sickle knife of Avalon; the drow priestess that had taken the dagger had handled it gingerly, wrapping the hilt in a thick cloth before taking it. Obviously, they had some sort of aversion to things of Avalon. She hoped that would aid her, but as the only things she had from Avalon were her robes and that knife, both of which she did not have with her, that was a useless idea. An acrid breeze blew into her room, sending Ailani into a paroxysm of coughing. Finally it let up, and she raised her head again, eyes red and watering.  
  
If this place isn't hell, she thought, I do not want to see what hell is.  
  
She fell into a fitful sleep; imagining glowing red eyes watching her from the corner of her room, things scuttling along the floor. It took her a moment to realize that a pair of eyes was watching her from the corner. The eyes were blue, however, and much kindlier-looking than any she'd seen in a long time. Carefully, Ailani uncurled and stepped off the bed. "Who's there?" she called in as imperious a voice as she could.  
  
A feminine figure wrapped in a blue cloak stepped from the shadows. The hood was drawn up over the face, but the frost that appeared even on the hellfire-heated floor of her room gave Ailani all the indication she needed. "Shiva?!"  
  
The aeon slowly lowered her hood; blue hair almost the same shade as Ailani's tumbled out. Shiva regarded Ailani with something resembling a mix of curiosity, appraisal, and sadness. "Ailani.dear child."  
  
Ailani fell to her knees. Shiva took her chin in chilly fingers and said, "Not to me, Ailani. Never to me. There is one more deserving of your praise, The One who made the Celestial Heavens and the World. He even made us aeons; we are his emissaries to the World. But this is no time to be discussing theology."  
  
Ailani looked up with awestruck eyes at Shiva. "Lady, why are you here?"  
  
Shiva turned to look behind her, and two other aeons appeared out of nowhere, quickly changing into what had been their human forms. Valefor was a woman with bright red hair; Leviathan, a muscled young man. Both bowed to Shiva, and nodded to Ailani.  
  
"Daughter," Valefor intoned in a voice that echoed with ghosts of the past. "Shiva, are we ready?"  
  
"Waiting for the sign," Shiva said quietly. Silence reigned in the room as the three aeons and Ailani listened, watched, waited for the sign. Then a breeze that was not acrid but fresh and clean blew through the room, lifting Shiva's cloak and Ailani's hair. Both closed their eyes and inhaled deeply. It brought with it the sounds of fighting, the twang of a bowstring, shouts in the elfin and drow tongues.  
  
"It is time."  
  
---***---  
  
Calix attacked with a fury that he never had before. Drow and demons scattered as he charged, blades flashing, through the archway that led to the bridge over the moat. The place was swarming with drow in particular; Calix cut through the male soldiers, trying to get to the priestesses before they could start casting spells.  
  
One of the soldiers dropped a globe of darkness over him. For a moment everything was silent; then the globe dissipated and Calix looked back appreciatively to where Yuna was casting defensive spells like mad, concentration etched into every line on her face. Seymour was blasting away with various black magic. Alastair was shooting away, his enchanted arrows streaking towards whatever target he sent them to and never missing. Rikku also jumped in, pulling items out of hidden pockets and either combining them or tossing them about without a moment to aim at any particular target. Drow were stopping, paralyzed, all over the field.  
  
The demons posed a different threat entirely. Immune to Rikku's items, they charged her and she went down. Calix swore and rammed his sword through the chest of the demon he was fighting; the demon crumbled and Calix ran back and defended Rikku's body until Yuna could cast a Full-Life spell. She stood and yelled "Thanks!" over the din. Finally they broke through and stormed the inner gates of the tower.  
  
Noxious fumes assaulted their noses as soon as they hauled the huge doors open. Their hands over their noses and mouths, they almost flew up the flight of steps - to be confronted with five doors. Rikku looked around at them, and kicked one. "Ow!"  
  
"Shows you. Did you think it would tell you if Ailani was that way if you kicked it?" Alastair said. Rikku stuck out her tongue. Yuna knelt on the stone and sloshed down an Elixir. Seymour was walking around, touching the doors, muttering under his breath.  
  
"I believe Ailani is through the fourth door from the left," a soft voice behind them said. All whirled to see a small woman with thick, shining red hair in a robe standing behind them. No one had any doubts that she had not been there a moment before. Calix pointed one of his blades at her.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
The woman bowed. "I am Valefor."  
  
Everyone gaped. Finally Seymour coughed and said, "But aren't you supposed to, ah, not exist? The Planet said that you had been set free - "  
  
Valefor smiled. "Just because I was 'set free' doesn't mean I ceased to exist. Oh, no," she continued. "The aeons are very much alive."  
  
"How is that possible?" Yuna said. "I sent you."  
  
Valefor looked at her. "Dreamer, I thought you more intelligent than that. It is a long story.  
  
"Originally, the aeons were not the beings you know today. We were once - oh, I suppose you would have called us angels. We were more messengers, keepers of the peace and Order in the World, known as simply the Deva. There were eleven of us originally; other, lesser Deva were made. But we, the Deva, were second only to The One. You will be familiar with us; Bahamut, Shiva, Leviathan, Ixion, Ifrit, Alexander, Anima, Anima, Diablos, Phoenix, and myself."  
  
"S'cuse me," Rikku said," but you only said ten."  
  
Valefor's face darkened. "The rogue Deva was Gilgamesh, Lord of Holiness. He was the greatest of all, even before Bahamut. He became ambitious, and desired to sit on the Seat of The One. The One struck him down, and he came here, to the place that was called many things - once it was a Crater, once the site of the castle of an evil sorceress. He had many sons; the oldest you know as Aubrey. Gilgamesh is naught but spirit; his body is that of a human, or once was the body of a human. It is such with Aubrey - once there was a human by that name, but he is no more. Now Devali inhabits the human Aubrey's body. He wishes to turn Ailani to something as himself, by making her drink from the Cup that is Never Clean. This Cup holds the blood of one of our kind."  
  
All shuddered, and Valefor shook herself. "But now is no time for talking. As we speak, the Cup is being readied. If we are not quick, the Fallen will have a new Queen and King."  
  
"I thought Gilgamesh was immortal," Calix cut in, being familiar with the story.  
  
"He is. But he has many faces, one of which will be your lover if we do not hurry, and I fear we are already late. Shiva will have our heads."  
  
She went up and touched the door; it swung open and she passed through, followed by the others. All looked stricken when they looked down on the throne room that the walkway they were on wrapped around. The height of opulence, it nonetheless had an air about it that was utterly repulsive. It could also have been the large, solid gold cup on a pedestal in the center of the room, filled to the brim with the blue-glowing blood of the Deva. Three figures were gathered around this cup currently; a black- skinned woman with long white hair and robes embellished with many renditions of spiders, a muscular figure sporting a black cape, and another man with a red cloak.  
  
Valefor rushed them along, looking pale. Once out of the room, she turned to Seymour and said, "You knew who they were."  
  
Seymour nodded. "Lolth, Sephiroth, and Gilgamesh. The three the Planet fears most."  
  
"The One created them, too, you know."  
  
"I know."  
  
Calix waved his blade. "Why is Sephiroth here? According to Spira's histories, didn't he die?"  
  
Valefor shook her head again. "There is no time. We must hasten to Ailani's tower before Aubrey comes to get her. Shiva and Leviathan do not want to fight."  
  
"Shiva-?"  
  
"There is no time! Come!" And, with more speed than seemed possible, she took off at a sprint, taking a flight of stairs that spiraled higher and higher. They ended in a door so heavily spelled that even Rikku could feel the tingle of the magic. It made the tiny hairs on her arms stand on end, and she smoothed them absently. Valefor looked apprehensively at the door. "I am not sure I can open it. Seymour, try that spell the Planet gave you."  
  
"How - "  
  
"Just do it, please."  
  
Seymour concentrated a moment, then flung his arms wide; the tingle of magic subsided, and the door clicked open. Calix was the first in, dropping his blades and embracing Ailani tightly. The others ringed them. Ailani looked gaunt; it was apparent she'd been fed properly, but she seemed thinner because of some sickness of spirit. Alastair was examining the wards on the room and nodding to himself; Rikku was following him. Yuna was talking to Shiva and Leviathan, half in a state of rapture from talking to them. Seymour stood awkwardly by the door, not really sure of where to fit in. Finally Rikku grabbed him and dragged him over to where Ailani was sitting on her bed, smiling broadly and visibly holding back tears.  
  
Father and daughter regarded each other for a moment, and then Ailani looked away and said softly, "I'm sorry."  
  
Seymour smiled reassuringly at her. "It's all right. I understand." He knelt and hugged her, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, she hugged him back. He drew back and traced the crescent moon on her forehead. "I am proud to be the father of a priestess of Avalon." Then Rikku broke the scene and demanded she be allowed hug her second cousin.  
  
It was Calix who first heard the stamp of boots against stone on the steps up. He hissed, "Attackers!" and ran over and shut the door softly, then he and Seymour crouched on the wall next to it and cast his cloak over his head. Alastair grabbed Yuna and Rikku and hid in the opposite corner. The vanished, leaving Ailani to sit on her bed, her old expression of mingled arrogance and hatred on her face.  
  
The footsteps got louder and were right outside the door - then stopped. The guards (or escorts) were muttering amongst themselves. Calix cast invisible eyes at Ailani, worried. Leviathan did look a little jumpy, though. He thought of Nenya, hidden in the last bit of fertile forest ground on the approach to the Tower, and wondered if he should have brought the great magical stallion with him.  
  
Seymour, beside him, was cursing softly in a language that the elf-prince did not know. Calix looked questioningly at him, and Seymour mouthed, spells.  
  
Of course, Calix thought. There had been layers of spells on the door, and now they were gone. One of the voices outside approached the door, and opened it. A drow male, with a wicked-looking sword and dagger in his gloved hands, entered and strode fearlessly over to Ailani. "Where are the wards?" he demanded.  
  
Ailani looked disdainfully at him. "How should I know? According to you, I am 'Avalon scum' and nothing worth knowing magic."  
  
The drow slapped her, and she recovered quickly, rising to her feet. "How dare you touch me!"  
  
Another voice, more imperious, joined those out in the antechamber beyond the door. The drow male called out in his language, and the new voice responded. The drow shrugged, and grabbed Ailani's arms; twisting them so she cried out. Keeping her in front of him, the drow forced her out the door, and the voices receded. 


	15. Silver Angels, Subtle Traps

Author's Note: I 'm so terribly sorry for the hugely long wait. A lot of things got in myy way of writing, and then for some reason I became depressed and suffered from writer's block. Well, never fear, I'm back! ^.^ As Sephira1, but still. Don't expect long delays like that.  
  
---***---  
  
Moving from their hiding spots, the party looked at each other. The aeons were all a little unsettled, especially Shiva. She was muttering very rapidly to herself; saying, "Why could they touch her? She is a priestess of Avalon, her flesh should melt theirs.."  
  
Calix looked out the door and growled. "I'm going after her," he said. "I don't want them-"  
  
"Don't, you fool," Leviathan said, sounding unusually brusque. "Do you want to get caught and killed?"  
  
"If it is for Ailani-"  
  
"You elves," Leviathan said, getting angry, "You damn noble elves, you always want to get the glory, I've seen it, you and your ancestors-"  
  
"Leviathan," Shiva began in a warning tone. The Water Deva quieted, but his eyes still blazed with controlled anger. "Now is not the time for arguing. Bahamut will soon be coming in with the rest of the Deva. But for now we must do what we can to interrupt the ceremony. We wait," and she put heavy emphasis on the word, "Until Valefor tells us when the party holding Ailani is at the bottom of the tower. We cannot risk them hearing our clattering as we descend." She looked disparagingly at Alastair's armor and Calix's chain mail.  
  
"Elvish chain mail-"  
  
"Makes hideous noise to Deva-and drow-ears, Prince Calix."  
  
Valefor began to shimmer. "I'll be back." She disappeared completely, and a moment later they heard the rush of air over wings but saw no bird-like figure go past the window; nonetheless they were confident that Valefor would perform her task admirably. Shiva and Leviathan disappeared into the corner to talk strategy; Shiva was drawing in ice on the floor, one fingertip tracing out the possible paths through the Tower. The others sat where they were and said nothing until the air in the middle of the floor shimmered and Valefor reappeared, breathing hard and shivering a little.  
  
"Damn the drow and their infrared vision," she panted. "I was sighted once; they don't think I'm up here though, I cast a Blizzard spell on myself. Ailani's being led into an antechamber on the east side of the main ceremony hall."  
  
"Can you continue on?" Leviathan asked. Valefor shook her head.  
  
"I will return to the Celestial Plane and come back when I am rested," she replied, and disappeared again. The party made their way down the stairs as quietly as possible; stopping again on the open corridor a level above the floor of the hall. Shiva pointed to an ornate golden door, then a silver one on the opposite end of the room. "Ailani is through the silver door, Devali through the gold. Seymour, Yuna, Rikku?"  
  
"Yes?" the three chorused.  
  
"Can I trust you with getting Ailani out of that room?"  
  
All three nodded, and Leviathan pulled a wand out of a hidden pocket in his loose-fitting tunic. "Shall I, Lady Shiva?"  
  
"Please do." Leviathan rapped each of them over the head with his wand; small snowflake-looking things drifted past their faces, chilling them. "A charm," Shiva said, "Similar to the ability Valefor used to become invisible."  
  
Leviathan drew back, looking at his handiwork. "What?" Rikku whispered to Alastair, who was looking at a spot six feet behind her. She jumped up and down and waved her arms. "I'm-right-here!"  
  
"Get down, foolish girl!" Leviathan snapped and pulled Rikku sharply to the floor. She rubbed her wrist and glared at him. The beautiful woman with white hair was looking up around the room, her red-glowing eyes narrowed. Sephiroth said something to her and she desisted. However, he too glanced around before returning his gaze to Gilgamesh across from him. The three were chanting softly. Shiva listened a minute, then swore again. Leviathan turned into an odd-looking cloud of vapor and Shiva instructed the three to get on. A little hesitant, Seymour, Yuna, and Rikku stepped onto the cloud and Leviathan propelled them down to the door, moving quickly about twenty feet above the floor. Yuna looked at the fast- approaching door hesitantly.  
  
"We can't go through solid walls," she whispered to Rikku. Then, surprisingly, they did.  
  
It was pitch black in the antechamber;. on the far wall was another door. Leviathan brought them to the floor silently, then with a very soft 'whump' turned back into a man. "Ailani is through that door," he said, pointing. Then he took out his wand and touched their foreheads this time; they saw in the infrared spectrum a greyish shape standing in front of them and brilliant hot figures moving around in the next room. "Good luck," Leviathan whispered. The grey shape disappeared.  
  
They found that by concentrating a little, they could shift their eyes between the spectra of natural and infrared light. Moving forward, testing out this new ability, they gathered around the door. All stared at it.  
  
"Oh, this is stupid," Rikku said, and kicked the door in.  
  
"Rikku!" Seymour said, exasperated, then shrugged. "So much for the element of surprise."  
  
"What surprise?" Yuna replied, before one of the drow females attending on Ailani tackled her.  
  
In the ensuing chaos, several things happened. Seymour shot off a Firaga spell that hit the drow on Ailani's right, which also bounced and hit a vase. Rikku took out the drow on Ailani's left, and the one that had tackled Yuna dragged her by her hair to her feet and slapped her across the face.  
  
"Human fodder!" she yelled in accented Commonspeak. Yuna, displaying completely unusual fury, slapped her back.  
  
"Evil wench!" Yuna screeched. The drow, her red-glowing eyes widened in surprise, dropped Yuna's hair and touched her darkened cheek. Yuna's ring had bit into the skin, and a welt was beginning to rise. Then the drow's eyes narrowed again, and she snarled.  
  
"Wishya!" the priestess said, and the three rescuers were knocked off their feet by the force behind the spell. Yuna was the first up, her eyes blazing, but it was Ailani who kicked the evil priestess in the kidneys, giving Yuna time to properly hit her over the head with the Nirvana. Ailani smiled at them - though none could see it in the dark.  
  
"Goddess, I hate the drow," she said, looking down at the prone form on the floor. "They've concocted some kind of spell that allows them to touch me, it's like a glove. To feel their chilly black hands - " Ailani shuddered, and then noticed all three were staring at her. "What?"  
  
"Ailani, you look.. almost angelic," Rikku said bluntly. Ailani looked around her.  
  
"I would counter that but I cannot see my hand in front of my face."  
  
In the light of the errant Firaga spell, Rikku had caught a glimpse of what Ailani was wearing - a silky silver dress that hugged her muscled body and then ended with a short train. The sleeves were like those of her priestess' robes; somewhat bell-shaped. Her hair hung loose, long and rippling with blue and silver. Seymour put off another Firaga spell; it caught on a tapestry, and in the light Ailani looked at herself. But instead of acting upset at all the opulence, as she might have, she smirked a little slyly.  
  
"Why don't we just act like nothing happened?"  
  
Rikku, Seymour, and Yuna broke into different protests as to why they should get her out of the Tower, one of which being that they seemed to think she had lost her mind. Ailani cast one of the spells of her own invention; all three were circled with dancing blue flames. Eventually they quieted, and Ailani smiled, again slyly. "There are three of the most powerful fighters ever known to History out in that room, and Aubrey - though I'm told his name is Devali - is in the other antechamber. It would be in our best interest to regain the advantage, hmm?"  
  
Her cool logic won out, and she cajoled Yuna into casting Life on the Priestesses. Ailani threatened them into going about as though everything was routine. They left the room with Ailani reminding the three terrified priestesses that she had the words of a horrendously powerful Holy spell on her tongue and would say them if she thought one of them was acting strange. Winking back at her mother before the door closed, the three regarded each other a bit strangely.  
  
"What has she got planned?" Seymour asked. Rikku shrugged.  
  
"I dunno. She is a really powerful mage, ya know? She might just blast them all off their feet!" Rikku made some exuberant gestures.  
  
Yuna shook her head. "I know my daughter. She'll try to do something subtle."  
  
Seymour shook his head. "Sephiroth is the one I can think of who will see her actions for what they are. He might already know what happened in here, if Lolth doesn't - she's the white-haired woman," he said to Rikku, who was staring at him blankly.  
  
"Ailani's not used to failure."  
  
"She'll find a way," they agreed.  
  
"So what should we do now?"  
  
Yuna shrugged, sitting with face to the door and putting her staff across her knees. "We wait, I suppose."  
  
---***---  
  
"The Dreamer, the Redeemed, and the Connection accomplished the first of their tasks," Sephiroth said in the language of the Deva. "The Beholder is ready."  
  
"Will the Beholder truly be able to See?" Lolth asked. Sephiroth looked at the drow Goddess, one hand on her hip and every sensuous curve of her perfect body painfully evident through the thin cloth of her robe. He was unmoved by her beauty, however; he had never had any interest in women, preferring to spend his time perfecting his sword technique and adding to his vast knowledge. Even in the Underworld, he did so. It was not a curse that the cursed Planet had laid on him; it was what he loved to do, lived to do. To become perfection embodied. The Beholder would bring that to him, he hoped.  
  
Or she would not live any longer than it took Gilgamesh's son to get a son from her. Sephiroth carefully masked his thoughts. Another Demon Princeling - half of the Royal Sons of Gilgamesh were already dead from their constant inter-family wars.  
  
"Sephiroth." The hotly glowing eyes of the Rogue Deva were narrowed, and for a single, brief flash of terror Sephiroth wondered if his sacrilegious thoughts had been heard. Gilgamesh was all too skilled at reading minds. The ex-General of SOLDIER obediently returned to saying the sacred words that would bless the unholy, never-emptied cup in front of him.  
  
From one side, he saw the Princeling enter, dressed in black to compliment the silver that he knew the Beholder would be in. Eyes flashing the same color as Gilgamesh's cloak looked oddly out of place in the almost too- handsome human face. Behind him, Sephiroth heard a rustle and saw the lustful look that Devali cast in the direction of the noise. She must have entered.  
  
The Ceremony began.  
  
---***---  
  
Sorry to leave you guys hanging, but this was getting too long already. There was so much more I wanted to put in, but..again, this was born of a writer's block-affected mind, so I apologize if it's not up to scratch. The next one'll be better, I promise! 


	16. Alpha and Omega

Author's Note: I suck at these on-time updates. But this is the last chapter before the explanation of my insanity on both fics.Chapter.6? 7? of "The First Priestess" should be up soon. Don't worry. I'm not dead.  
  
---***---  
  
The Beholder stopped; Sephiroth could see the blue crescent of Avalon almost glowing on her forehead, and shivered. If there was ever anything he feared, it was Avalon. And since this girl was Priestess and Beholder, she held unimaginable power.  
  
Could she unlock that, though, Sephiroth wondered. Gilgamesh and Devali certainly thought so. Lolth was outwardly opposed to the idea; her own eyes were narrowed with hatred, and she hissed, "I would that she had been killed..if she is truly the Beholder her spirit will not allow her to die."  
  
Gilgamesh shook his head. "The power of Avalon must be behind her, and in death she does not have that."  
  
"She will not have it anyway, soon enough."  
  
Gilgamesh put his back to her, facing his son and the Beholder. "You know my position."  
  
Devali, almost inhumanly beautiful, tried to take the Beholder's hand. She responded by yanking it away and began to cast some sort of spell; one of her handmaidens grabbed her arm and twisted it. The Beholder's lips drew back in a grimace, her teeth ground; but she did not cry out. Instead she glared at the handmaid and started another spell. This, too, was halted, and the girl was pushed towards the pedestal upon which the Cup gleamed, wickedly golden, like the beautiful deadly flashing of a deep-sea fish's lure.  
  
Speaking arcane words, each of the Triad placed unholy blessings on the Cup; it was then lifted reverently from its carved seat and lifted high in a final blessing by Devali. Gilgamesh watched as his son brought it over to the Beholder; one of the handmaidens yanked her head back, the other forced her mouth open. Devali placed the chilly metal brim of the cup on her lips. Tipping it back, he whispered another set of words that he had rehearsed since he was old enough to know their meaning.  
  
The handmaiden holding her mouth forced it shut and held on, any trace of fear or apprehension gone. Gurgling noises, and a tiny stream of blood from the corner of her mouth showed she was fighting swallowing with all her might. Finally, though she had to, and coughed once the drow holding her mouth had released it. A fine spray of red covered Devali and spattered Sephiroth's hair. The Beholder's lips were ruby-red with the liquid; it dripped off her chin and stained her dress. Her eyes took on a glazed look; it was time for her to See.  
  
---***---  
  
"Let me GO!"  
  
Calix struggled violently against Leviathan's grip; the elf's emerald eyes were narrowed, and when he finally stopped struggling he shook with rage. "Let me go, damn you!"  
  
Leviathan did not relax his grip. "You'll be very foolish. No."  
  
"Whose side are you on?"  
  
Shiva said, "We are on nobody's side. Now, kindly stop complaining, and listen."  
  
Slowly the party quieted, and as they did a soft, mad giggling could be heard. Peeking between the rails of the catwalk, the say Ailani, on her knees, staring with unseeing eyes at a highly polished mirror.  
  
"The veil," she said, in a voice that should not have carried up to where they were. Shiva frowned.  
  
"The veil," Ailani repeated. "Was it rent in twain from top to bottom?"  
  
" 'Was it rent in twain from top to bottom?' 'The veil?' What is she talking about, Shiva?" Alastair asked. Shiva shook her head.  
  
"It may be millenia past, Elf-lord. The Beholder sees many things."  
  
Ailani's giggling grew a little louder. "Catchers..catchers in the rye..behold, they shall harvest their unholy souls and burn them, like weeds among wheat..Goddess, Ceridwen,the Wheel spins thirteen times..then the Truth will be shown to all, when the Wheel..thirteen.Mother, Goddess.." She trailed off into a fit of giggling, then collapsed, and lay motionless a moment.  
  
Much like with Rikku's group, several things happened in that moment.  
  
Calix jumped off the catwalk, landing lightly on his feet and drawing his blades. Also, Shiva struck Lolth with a javelin made of sparkling, opaque ice, and Seymour, Yuna, and Rikku tumbled out of the silver door and landed on one of the handmaidens. This caused Ailani to sit up and notice a small light outlining her.  
  
She knelt, looking at her glowing hands, then at her father. Actions and ideas not her own began running through her head; slowly she stood, the light growing brighter, until she was almost unbearable to look at. All motion in the room stopped. The only things that was discernible in the light were her eyes, bright bluey sparks.  
  
"Father," she said, in a voice that resonated through the Tower. "The Lock."  
  
Seymour stared up at her. "What?"  
  
"I am the Key, as you are the Lock. The spell."  
  
---***---  
  
The Planet gave both the words they needed, and smiled to itself as it felt the Lock turning. Destiny would be fulfilled, the last of its children brought back to it.  
  
---***---  
  
Behind Ailani, a great tear appeared in the air - that was what it looked like, at least. It swirled with green and blue and silver, pulsing. Ailani, growing brighter, rose into the air.  
  
"The veil," Alastair muttered.  
  
A great boom rattled all in the room; three shock waves started pulsed out from Ailani. In the first wave, the Triad disintegrated; in the second, Devali and the other drow did; the Deva vanished, back to their plane to watch safely. The third pulse was not felt by anyone for a minute. Then the tower began to rumble.  
  
"The Tower's going to collapse!" Alastair cried, grabbing Rikku's hand and making for the door. A chunk of ceiling fell in front of him. Spinning around in panicky circles, the party was trapped.  
  
Another light appeared in the middle of the floor, and grew into the shape of a horse - with a golden horn and moon-silver coat. Nenya, only it was not. The stallion was nearly as tall as the catwalk around the top of the hall; wings were furled tightly against his withers. The great steed knelt, and the party ran up his foreleg, clinging to each other. Calix was in front; he grabbed strands of the wiry mane and gripped tightly. With a neigh like the tolling of a bell, Nenya leapt upwards. The golden horn cast a beam of gold light, clearing off half the Tower and allowing them to escape safely into the night air.  
  
"AILANI!" Calix yelled, looking down at the bare point of light that his beloved was, visible against a tempest of magical power and dust. Seymour grabbed the elf's chain mail.  
  
"Let her go, Prince," he said. "Let her be." The half-Guado's eyes were filled with tears. "She'll be fine."  
  
Nenya took them far up from the Earth; it seemed they grew as big as a mountain, then were as small as fireflies, dancing in a timeless dance that brought them safe through the Valley of Shadow.  
  
---***---  
  
"So it is done," Bahamut said.  
  
"Yes." Shiva watched as the tiny point of light that was Ailani dimmed, flickered, then went out altogether. "Ailani was the right choice."  
  
"She had the Old Blood, too, Shiva. She is one of the Planet's children. The last."  
  
Shiva watched as slowly the dark mist that had covered much of the three- dimensional map dispersed; it glowed merrily, the little points of light twinkling. "So we are free, truly free."  
  
"Yes."  
  
---***---  
  
Within the ruins of the Tower, Ailani smiled as she watched Nenya spiral upward. Even as the ceiling fell, and her form became less corporeal, she smiled up at the starlight.  
  
It felt like she was swimming, down the deepest parts of the Lake in Silverwood. Turning over, she kicked her feet; why, she was swimming! Ahead of her was a green glow, and Ailani swam for that.  
  
^Welcome home, my child.^  
  
---***---  
  
Almost four hundred years later, an elf with black hair tread softly through a verdant forest. His hair was streaked through with silver, now, but not with age. The years had not dimmed his outward appearance; but he moved with the stiffness of age. In truth, he had not been out here in four hundred years. All his companions that had been with him then were long dead. Looking back to where a great winged stallion stood, grazing happily, he nodded and continued on.  
  
He came out into a valley, forested over too. Moving to the floor, he finally found what he was looking for. A ruin of a wall stood in front of him. Leaping from stone to stone, the elf made his way into what the outline showed to have been a grand hall.  
  
Bursting rocks with magic did not make him break a sweat, and he found what he was looking for. A beautiful silver dress, old, old bloodstains spattering the front. Carefully folding it, he put it in his pack and turned to go, but stopped.  
  
A young woman stood in front of him, smiling a bit arrogantly. "Well, Prince Calix, I can see you're no different."  
  
The elf dropped his pack. "A-Ailan..i?"  
  
The apparition nodded, and then held out her hand. It was half-hidden in a long sleeve, the robe of a high priestess of Avalon. The crescent on her brow glowed brightly.  
  
"Hello, Calix," Ailani said. "It's been a long time."  
  
"A long time?" Calix said incredulously, then smiled weakly and stepped forward. "Ailani.. I've missed you."  
  
"I know. I've been waiting for you, Calix."  
  
Calix stood beside her, looking at his body laying on a sun-warmed stone in what had been a Tower. Ailani's spirit laughed.  
  
"Looks like I killed you a little, Calix."  
  
"Yes," Calix said, smiling at her and taking her hand. "Looks like you killed me a lot."  
  
They disappeared.  
  
---***---  
  
I would like to thank my lovely, bestest, most adorable friend Kyle-chan. I couldn't have gotten this off the ground without your inventive RP mind. Thankuu.  
  
To yunalesca78 - thank you so much for all the awesome reviews. When people were sending me flames, and when I started thinking maybe I was being too cliché, or too long-winded, or something, your reviews always made me feel like I was actually any good. You're really a cool person.  
  
To arcander - man, you rock. What else can I say?  
  
To all my other reviewers: thank you, for the good reviews and the bad. Both kept me thinking realistically and kept me on track when I wanted to go off on tangents with certain characters, and in many ways (I know you lot have seen them) influenced where the story went initially. Again, thanks for 16 chapters of pure joy.  
  
See you again soon.  
  
Sephira Netzach 


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